


Somewhere Only We Know

by mltrefry



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Post-Time War, Romance, Season/Series 01, alternate time war outcome, episode rewrites, season series 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-19
Updated: 2017-03-04
Packaged: 2018-08-16 01:20:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 60,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8081137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mltrefry/pseuds/mltrefry
Summary: After ending the Time War with unexpected results, the Doctor becomes the last Time Lord in the Universe. But fate refuses to let him be alone, and his first stop in fixing the wrongs caused by the war leads him to a shop basement in London. And one Rose Tyler.





	1. One is the Loneliest Number

**Author's Note:**

> A shout out to Vallora who threw this plot bunny at me.

Palms sweaty, the Doctor’s eyes kept flickering to the stasis cube rigged up to the TARDIS. It caught the light in his worn, Victorian style control room, and twinkled in a way that nearly taunted him for what he was doing. “Treason” Romana had called it, yet he was pretty sure that she was one of he 12 voices he heard over the closed communications. Not positive, of course, but he was pretty sure somewhere between her losing her presidency and the resurrection of Rassilon she likely regenerated.

“On your mark, Doctor.” A deep, raspy voice filled the TARDIS, feeling louder than it likely was.

 He wished he knew who these Time Lords were. He knew they weren’t all him; it would be stupid and irresponsible to go to the past and ask for help from himself involving a war that he didn’t want to be part of to begin with. He was the only one who offered his name, and it really came as no shock to any of them who was inadvertently leading such a rebellious cause. He didn’t care much about the rest wanting to keep their identities safe at the time, but now that those twelve were about to be the only other Time Lords left in the Universe, in _this_ Universe, he wanted to know if any of them actually ever liked him.

He really, really hoped Romana among them.

“On three, we tuck Gallifrey away for the safety of everyone. ” He said, his voice much clearer and more commanding than he expected. He quickly brushed his palm against his dark green, worn frock coat before hovering his hand on over the console. “One, two, … three.”

He pushed he big, red button.

The Doctor was probably he only one in their little gang to see fit to have a big, red button to push at the moment of action. Something about it felt right, the way his palm cupped the curve, and the color of finality there against his skin.

He looked to the monitor and watched as the beams of white light circled the planet. Ships cloaked to blend in with the universe around them were suddenly seen hovering around the atmosphere while the energy they let loose made a cage of sorts around the red planet. The light brightening illuminated their outline dangerously inside the Dalek line of fire, but they knew the risks. It was discussed at length.

But the Doctor could hardly focus on that, his eyes riveted on the planet. His respiratory bypass kicked in as his hearts began to beat quicker. What if it didn’t work? What if they destroyed the planet? What if Rassilon found a way to stop it? There were so many things that could happen, all the results of one faulty calculation. The light grew brighter, and the Doctor’s eyes widened.

Then in a blink, Gallifrey disappeared.

A slow smile spread along the Doctor’s face, causing his eyes to crinkle a bit in the corner. A soft chuckle began to bubble up from his chest, and he was soon laughing joyously. Clapping his hands together, he continued to laugh with himself, jumping up for a moment before he remembered that this body was supposed to be elegant and dangerous in this body. Yet he hadn’t felt this exuberant since he had regenerated, and found comfortable shoes and memories of who he was and why he was on Earth.

There was the solemn, easy congratulatory conversation carrying over the intercom, the common sound of the Time Lords stoically patting themselves on the back despite that the lot of them would have had to have been at least a bit rebellious to have had to pull that off. Still, the Doctor couldn’t fault them, and he ventured over to the console to join in on the conversation.

“Yes, well done. Perhaps we should convene in person, have a proper toast? I suggest we ….”

The TARDIS shook violently, knocking the Doctor to the floor hard enough to knock the wind out of him. His vision blurred for a moment, and he shook his head in an attempt to clear it. Pushing himself up, he was nearly instantly sent back down by another, violent shake. His ears were ringing, and he wasn’t entirely sure the alarms blaring weren’t entirely in his head. 

“What the bloody hell is happening?” The Doctor ground out as he pushed himself up. He flung himself forward, pulling himself up using the edge of the console to get a peek of the monitor. There was debris everywhere, blocking most of his view of the universe. A chunk must of have hit the side of the TARDIS as there was a lurch that had him lose his footing. The vertigo from keeping himself upright made him want to swallow every word of his superior biology he’d ever muttered to anyone ever.

“What’s happening, Ol’ Girl?” He asked the time ship, his head pounding. There was a sad, hummed lament that he couldn’t really focus on, and something warm trickled down the back of his neck.

Another lurch, the world spun, and then it went dark.

 

* * *

 

When he came around, the Doctor looked about the console room from his place on the floor. His reading chair and tea table were over turned. Well, actually, now that he really looked at it, it seemed that everything was over turned or in pieces. His hearts ached for the broken bits that was his gramophone. The books from the shelves, he worried for a moment, might be too damaged to repair. Some of them were bent quite terribly with the weight of the shelves. The carpet was damaged, and he could feel the pain of the TARDIS echoing in his mind. There was nothing for it, he would need a new desktop.

“And we’ve had this one for so long.” He lamented as he managed to push himself up.

His whole body ached, and it surprised him he hadn’t regenerated for all the pain his was in. He could feel damage to his ribs, though if he had broken them, they were already on their way to healing. The back of his head stung, and he was more certain than ever there had been a gash there. Probably still was. Getting to his feet, he knew instantly there was damage to his right ankle. The string of curses in a few different languages and the sense that the TARDIS would have blushed if she were flesh reflected how bad the damage was.

Limping, he headed for the corridor. When he approached the doors and they would not open, he looked to the ceiling. “I’m going to need the med bay.” He told the ship.

She hummed another sad lament, though this one was laced with guilt and apologies.

“Whatever happened, you took on a lot of damage, didn’t you?”

“That’s why she landed you here.” Ohila, leader of the sisterhood of Karn, stated from the main doors of his TARDIS.

The Doctor leaned against the wall by the entrance to the corridor and scowled. “I’m not dying, and you can’t try and convince me that I am. Again. Why would she land us here?”

“Because we were the closest planet that could provide you any kind of help for the damage that has been done. Come, your ship needs to heal as much as you do, and she can not do that with you still inside.”

The Doctor frowned, a scathing retort on the tip of his tongue, when his ship hummed a desperate plea for him to listen.

“Fine.” He growled softly, mostly for himself and the TARDIS, then hobbled toward Ohila using the wall for support. It took a lot longer this way, the room being fairly vast, but at least Ohila hadn’t attempted to do more than stand on the threshold. As much as her help could have sped things along, the Doctor was at least grateful she hadn’t presumed her welcome.

“You gave a proper right of passage to Cass?” He asked, gritting his teeth through the pain.

“Proper for those of Karn, at least. As we didn’t know where she came from or who her people might have been, we did what we could.”

“It was all I asked.” The Doctor replied, reaching out for the older woman as he got near enough. She grasped his hand tightly, irritating the scraps on his knuckles, though he didn’t say anything. “I entered the war, as you asked. I believe it’s safe to say we won.”

“But at what cost to you, Doctor?” Ohila asked kindly as she guided him out of the TARDIS. She guided his hobble toward the mouth of the cave before them where a half dozen of the other sisters stood around a stone alter, each holding a smoking goblet.

“Oh not this again.” The Doctor groaned, gesturing the to women cloaked in red. “I told you, I’m not dying or dead, and you can’t try that on me again.”

“No, you’re not. And no, we’re not. The Elixir of Life is not the only potion we of Karn can produce. We can heal the current body as well, help guide the regenerative energy to heal the body without transforming it, or having it count toward your lives used.”

“How inventive of you.” The Doctor replied as he was brought to the alter. He hoisted himself up, grateful to be off his aching legs, and lifted the one with the bad ankle to rest on the flat surface.

“The Time Lords bade us help them with what ever means we possible could. We have made the Draught of Healing, which we will give to you, as well a few other … controversial potions in their quest to win the Time War. This was before, of course, it had gotten so terribly out of hand. When Rassilon was first resurrected.”

“And what did you lot get in return? Oh, come now, don’t look so surprised, Ohila. You wouldn’t do something for nothing. And don’t think I haven’t figured out that it was Rassilon and the council that encouraged you to convince me of my death should I ever find myself stranded here. They wanted me in the war, and they wanted me regenerated into a man willing to fight.”

Ohila at least looked a touch guilty as her frown slowly faded into a more neutral expression. She looked over the vast, barren landscape behind the cave, seeming lost in thought. As she looked out, one of the sisters brought over a goblet, and the Doctor unthinkingly took a drink.

He could feel a subtle fire stirring within, the same sensation that preceded his transformation into another man. But the fire never grew, only intensified in the areas of his body that were damaged. Admittedly, it was more than he realized, and fatigue began to take over.

“They gave us protection.” Ohila finally spoke. “They shielded our planet from the effects of the Time War, allowing us to live in peace. When the Time Lords were destroyed, that shield evaporated, allowing your ship to land here along with some of the debris that followed you.”

“Time Lords weren’t destroyed,” The Doctor slurred, his eyes growing heavy as he made a great effort to finish the last of the liquid in his cup. “There were hidden.”

“Yes, most were hidden. Nearly all of them. But there were some of you left behind. One of them was the keeper of our shield. But they’re gone now.”

“Gone?” The Doctor asked, fighting the urge to sleep as his hearts picked up speed and the word of Ohila made their way through the fog of his brain.

“Dead. Destroyed. There were thirteen Time Lords left in this Universe for less than an hour. Now, there is only one.”

Before the Doctor could argue that point, or feel anything other than confusion, his eyes rolled back and he was out.

 

* * *

 

When the Doctor abruptly awoke, he looked at his hands. Same hands he’d had for a few centuries, now unmarred from his tumble around the TARDIS. At least, he was sure it was a few centuries. He never could properly keep track. But they were the same, which meant that when he finally caught his reflection he’d still see the same face he had when he last shaved. The beginnings of lines around his blue eyes, a visage that was starting to show the signs of age but was still as handsome as it had been in it’s more youthful appearance. He liked this body, this face, and he wanted to hold on to it. He ran his familiar hand over the back of his head, fingers feeling through the short curls for the cut that was no longer there. Sometimes he missed his longer hair, but the cropped look was much more practical.

He rolled his ankle, and felt no grinding or popping to indicate damage, though it wasn’t the most comfortable movement in the gaiters and ankle boots. He suddenly realized how odd it was for the sisterhood to have left them on, seeing as how his frock coat and blue ascot were removed. He looked around, spotting them neatly folded on the ground beside the alter he laid on. He looked down his torso as he patted himself. His brocade, muted gold and black waistcoat was still in place, as was the chain attached to it, one end leading to the small pocket that held his pocket watch. His sonic screwdriver would be tucked away in coat. The sleeves of his ivory oxford had been unbuttoned and rolled up, so he promptly went about righting those.

“How do you feel, Doctor?” Ohila’s voice startled him slightly, but he merely whipped his head up to look at her as he finished putting himself back together.

“Quite well, actually. Like a new man, except I’m not. Quite the feat you’ve pulled, Ohila.”

“And what of your mind?” She asked cautiously.

“What of it?” He asked as he hopped off the alter, bending briefly to retrieve his coat and ascot. He plopped the former down on the alter behind him as he went about retying the latter around his neck.

“Does it feel empty? Is it too quiet inside your head without them?” Ohila asked.

“Without who?”

“The Time Lords.”

The Doctor frowned as he focused on his telepathic centers. While touch was more or less required for true communication, there was always a buzz in the back of his mind, the hum of the presence of other Time Lords. Well, mostly when they were nearby, but there had also always been a light connection. Or maybe that was just with his ship? He stretched his mind, seeking for others, finding only the TARDIS.

“It would make sense that I wouldn’t feel them, what with them being in another Universe.” He replied as he slipped his coat back on over his shoulders.

“Yes,” Ohila replied. “But you should still have been able to sense another twelve souls, and I know you do not.”

The Doctor adjusted his coat as he ignored the growing unease in his chest. “They are simply too far away.”

“They are simply dead, Doctor. Dead, and there is nothing we can do to bring them back. They are lost to us.”

“No,” He said simply. He moved for the TARDIS, seeing the ship outside the cave, waiting for him with a stoic hum. He attempted to keep his steps casual, but the urgency to learn the truth was making his pace a bit too quick. He reached into his inner coat pocket for a key, paying no mind to how it felt different in his hand. He unlocked and opened the door, ignoring the differences the back of his mind was registering as he went for the console.

He quickly opened up the closed communication he had with the other TARDISes. “Hello? Hello? This is the Doctor, can you read me? Is anyone there?” He tried, getting nothing but static. He refused to believe the silence in his mind was permanent, that he would never feel the brush of another Time Lord in his mind again.

“With your planet hidden, and the others who joined you on such a foolish endeavor to do so gone, I’m afraid you’re the only Time Lord left.” Ohila said.

“But I can’t be.” The Doctor said softly to himself. He tried to think if there was a way he could bring Gallifrey back, knew there had to be some sort of log that indicated where it was. If not, he could calculate the possible location. It was only a pocket universe, there couldn’t be that many.

His hearts were racing, his mind following suit even as the TARDIS merely hummed a little sadly.

“Doctor.” Ohila said, getting his attention. He looked over his shoulder, seeing her standing in the doorway once more. It was only by the sharp contrast of her red robes that he clued in that the walls of his time ship were light once more.

Teal, it seemed, with a hexagonal pattern on the lower part of the walls. All around him, the rails and supports were much more organic in design, reminding him of TARDIS coral when it was just beginning to properly grow. The floors were smooth, light grey, a metal of some variety that looked like marble and sounded so under his feet. The jump seats hardly looked comfortable, straight backed and hard, ribbed and unpleasant. The time rotor extended to the ceiling, emitting a blueish-green light. It ended at the base of a collection of names in Gallifreyan. He caught a few: Susan, Sarah-Jane, Lucie, Ace. Companions, and with a few blank spaces among them for ones yet to come.

“Doctor,” Ohila repeated, bringing the focus back to her. Without permission, she entered the TARDIS and walked up to him. “Take these.” She said, handing him three bottles. “One is for healing, one is to aid in a regeneration, the other … is something we made just for you. One day, you will understand why we gave it to you. But there is something you have to understand: you are the only one left. There are no more. They are gone, and so you must be the one to uphold the laws of time. If you don’t, terrible things will happen.”

“I won’t be alone, not for long. I will find them, Ohila, it’s only a matter of ….”

“Time. Something you are intimately familiar with. But each time you scan the Universe, ask yourself this: is it wise to bring them back? With the way they were in the end, the lengths you went to to ensure they would not unleash their tyranny on the universe, is it worth it to have the connection?”

“If you were the only one of the Sisterhood of Karn left here, would you not find a way to bring the others back?” He countered.

“No,” She replied. “I would simply seek out _new_ sisters.” She paused, her blue eyes locking with the Doctor’s as she stared at him intensely. After a few hearts beats, she blinked, and offered a faint smile. “I will leave you, Doctor, so that you may get back out into the stars and set right what the Time War has made wrong with the Universe. You are not the only one left displaced or confused.”

Without another word, Ohila turned and left the TARDIS, closing the doors behind her.

The Doctor slumped against the console, mind reeling from all that happened. His time sense told him he’d been out for a day, something that weighted down the fact he was the only survivor. How? Why? He had an older ship, certainly if he survived … whatever it was, than they did, too.

The Doctor moved around the control panel, setting up a scanning system for anything Gallifreyan.

He waited.

After hours passed, he set off and explored the layout of his TARDIS. Nothing about her looked the way he was used to, but at the same time she was familiar in that she mimicked designs of the past. He would wander until he was exhausted, knowing in both hearts that she would shift his bedroom to where he was when he needed rest. He’d lie down with certainty that if the scanner detected anything, she would put his room right next to the console room, and he could land in an instant.

Eventually, hours of wandering turned to days of waiting. Each one that passed made his hearts grow heavier, the loneliness increase.

Alone, so alone.

“What am I to do, Ol’ Girl?” He asked his time ship as he slumped in the corridor, peering into the console room.

There was a ping, not one to alert him to the presence of anything Gallifreyan, but a different one he set up before. A different alarm that informed him when something or someone was on his favorite planet, his second home.

“I need to disable that,” He muttered as he went to the console. A few flicks of the controls, and he disabled it permanently.

The TARDIS hummed something that sounded like a growl.

“Oh don’t give me that.” The Doctor said without bite. “We want to find the other Time Lords, not ….” He peered down at the controls and read what had been detected and when. “Oh, hello, what’s this?” He said, fingers running along the circles of his language. “Autons, London, 2005. Why is it always London?” He muttered to himself as he went about setting the controls and flipped the switch. “Well, Ol’ Girl, looks like my time of perpetual mourning and moping is done. Should probably grab some supplies before landing. Doubt I’ll find the Nestene Consciousness first go, might need to blow a few things up, first.”


	2. Rose pt 1

_Little town, it’s a quiet village. Every day, like the one before._

The lyrics to the Disney film swirled around in Rose’s mind as she folded jumpers and willed time to go by faster. London was hardly little or quiet, but the daily routine of getting up, getting dressed, catching the bus, and working open to close was getting old. She was fairly certain she wasn’t even fully awake when she kissed her Mum goodbye and left for the day. Even Mickey, try as he might, make her laugh as he did, was all part of the everyday. Paper bagged lunch together in the square, relate stories from the times they weren’t together, share a laugh or two, peck goodbye and return to their respect jobs.

It was all quite boring.

A small voice reminded her to be grateful for the boring. There were no surprises of women’s panties on the floor of her bedroom that were no hers, or black eyes or hand shaped bruises because her cheque didn’t quite meet the total she expected it to be. Really, things had been much worse for her in the past.

Maybe she could go back and get her A levels? But that would mean giving up the money she sorely needed after paying off the debt the bastard caused her to fall into.

“This is a customer announcement.” A new clerk came over the store’s intercom system, and knowing what he was about to say, Rose’s shoulders sagged with relief. “The Store will be closing in five minutes. Thank you.”

Five minutes left, then it was about fifteen minutes of waiting while the clerks cashed out, and then they’d be home free. She could go back to the flat she shared with her Mum, have a cuppa and watch some telly, and then head to bed to start the whole, miserable routine again.

She bid her time folding jumpers, went to the staff lounge to grab her bag, and headed for the door.

“Oi!” Billy the security guard said, stopping her by thrusting a plastic baggy of money against her chest.

“What’s this?” She asked, knowing what it was and cringing at the idea that it was her turn.

“Take it down to Wilson, will ya? Might be the week we can all quit this place.”

“Might be.” Rose replied with a strain smile. “Wait for me?”

“Have to if I wanna lock up, don’t I?” He said with a sly grin and a wink. “So hurry it up, Tyler. Match is on tonight.”

Rose rolled her eyes and headed for the lift, sending Billy a glare the whole while as he let the rest of the staff out. Her fingers tightened around the plastic baggie in her hand as the doors shut behind her.

Wilson’s office was in the basement, and the corridor immediately off the lift was creepy enough with stockers and receivers wandering about during the day. All but the security lights had been turned off for the night as they were automatically prone to do.

“Wilson?” She called out the second the elevator door was open. When he didn’t immediately poke his head out from anywhere, Rose stepped out of the elevator and headed down the corridor. “Wilson, I’ve got the lottery money. Wilson?” She headed for his office door and knocked. She waited, reading the _HP Wilson CEO_ on the door about ten times before knocking again. “You there? Look, I can’t hang about ‘cause Billy’s waitin’. Wilson!” She pounded again, this time with the palm of her hand. She grumbled softly and ignored the sting on her skin.

Just as Rose was about to shout again or leave, she heard something down the corridor.

“Hello? Hello, Wilson? It’s Rose.” She called out as she headed in the direction the noise came from. There was a door slightly ajar, and Rose pushed it open. “Wil-Wilson?” She stuttered. It was dark, and she tried to scan the room for movement. Something caught her eye, and she flicked on the light in hopes of startling the old coot for trying to frighten her.

The room was filled with shop dummies, all dressed, though some fashions didn’t make much sense. There were boxes neatly stacked and placed out of the way, and any other merchandise was carefully set aside as well. Odd, really, considering the clothing stock room was usually a mess, and she was fairly certain that the shop had never had so many extra mannequins before.

Heading further in, she called for Wilson again, glancing about. As she head for a second door, she heard the one she came through slam shut.

Rose’s heart leapt up in her throat as she ran back, seeing the heavy red door sealed shut. An incident from a few years back flashed through her mind, of another shop girl getting stuck in the room for about an hour because they hadn’t thought to make it unlockable from the inside. As Rose tried the handle, she realized that one incident wasn’t enough for management to make the change.

Another door. She just needed to get to another door.

Just as she calmed herself down, there was another noise behind her.

Whipping around fast enough that her hair got caught in her partially opened mouth, Rose scanned the area for shadows. “Is that someone mucking about?” She half shouted into the room. She removed the lock of hair from her lips as she ventured into the room again. “Who is it?” She demanded.

She would give up the lottery money in a second flat, if need be. She could also do a decent enough job to make sure the gits didn’t get away before she took off to safety herself.

Movement caught her eye, and she turned and startle to see a shop dummy coming toward her. “Ha,” She managed to say and force a smile while her heart pounded in her ears. “You got me, very funny.”

The dummy kept coming toward her, and she scanned it for some sign that it was fake, for someone controlling it. As she did, two more joined the first, crowding in on her.

Who was she working with tonight? Shireen and Margo, but they were ahead of her when Billy stopped her. She didn’t recall the mens wear blokes, Derek, Marcus, and the new one. It had to be them, the former most being the worst at pulling these sort of stunts.

“Right I’ve got the joke,” She said with a bit more menace this time. “Who’s idea was this? Derek’s?” They didn’t relent. “Derek, is that you?” She asked.

But it couldn’t have been. Even with the full closing staff being in on the joke, there would be no way they could get _all_ the dummies to crowd in on her as they were now.

Rose backed away, a bit more unsteady now, bumping into the neat stacks of boxes and knocking them over.  She collided with the wall, tried the nearest door, and had no luck. She scooted down, trying to get to the next, only to inadvertently put herself closer to the idiots that were closing in on her.

She was properly frightened, and, when this was over, she would never hear the end of it.

 _If you get outta this, ya mean_ , the voice in her mind betrayed the thoughts she didn’t want to dwell on. She was surrounded, there was no way she could try the door without turning her back on her assailants. One raised its hand, and it looked as stiff, heavy, and unyielding as a proper dummy’s. She closed her eyes, screwing her face up as she awaited with impact of hysterical laughing.

She didn’t expect to cool hand to wrap around hers.

Whipping her head up, Rose looked to the earnest, handsome man as he gave her a small smile. “Care to run?” He asked, pulling her hand before she could reply and leading her through the door she wanted to get through before.

The hissing sound of a broken pipe faded as they ran toward the service lift on the opposite end of the second corridor. Heart hammering, Rose looked over her shoulder to see the dummies lumbering toward them at an oddly fast pace. Their movements were stiff, the act keeping in tact, but the speed didn’t seem to correlate with the limited mobility.

The man hit the button for the lift, and there were precious seconds before it opened up. With a gentle shove, he pushed her in first, then followed suit, whipping around and barely missing the plastic arm at it swung down hard toward his head.

He grabbed it, and there was a bit of a tug of war between who ever was controlling the dummy and him, though Rose wasn’t sure if he wanted to pull the arm or push it away. Other dummies were clamoring for an attempt to get through the few inches the lift door remained open. Just as a few hands were about to make their way into the gap, the arm of the dummy the man was tugging on released with a pop and the lift doors closed.

Both he and Rose let out a sigh of relief.

“You pulled his arm off.” She commented.

“I did, yes.” He replied, examining it thoroughly.

“Very clever, nice trick.” She said as he handed it over to her.

“Hardly a trick. Just required a bit of muscle.” He said with a smile. A bloody gorgeous smile, if she were being honest.

The corner of Rose’s lips twitched up for a moment before she remembered that flirting in a small space with a complete stranger who just _happened_ to be around when she was being attacked was likely not a good idea.

“So who were they, then? Were they students?”

“Students?” The man’s brow furrowed.

“Yeah, students. Was it some sorta student thing or something?”

“No.” He replied, eyeing her curiously. “Why do you think they would be students?” He asked with a tilt of his head.

“I don’t know. ‘Cause to get that many people dressed up and being silly … they gotta be students.”

“Clever.” The man replied. “But as you saw, I pulled off the arm,” He gestured to the chunk of plastic in her hands, and she looked at it for what felt like the first time. It was a proper dummy arm, not part of a costume at all. “Interesting theory, though. Logical, considering.”

“Considering?” Rose retorted.

“You’re human.” He replied.

She blinked, the line between her eyes deepening. Before she could even ask what he meant by that, the lift pinged, and he stepped out.

Rose followed.

“Watch your eyes. Gets a bit bright.” He said as he pulled a long, silver, cylindrical thing with a red knob on the end from his jacket pocket. He pointed it at the control panel for the lift, and after a few seconds of whirring, humming, sparks flew from the panel.

Rose yelped, hopped back, and he chuckled.

“Probably should have warned you about that.” He said with that ever pleasant grin.

“So s’plain to me what this is all about.” Rose said as he turned and lead her down the staff corridor to the loading dock. “Who are you? Who’s that lot down there?”

The man paused, sighing with exasperation. “Right, where are my manners? I’m the Doctor.”

“The Doctor?” She replied, a brow lifting in disbelief.

“Yes, the Doctor. And I never got your name.” He said, gesturing politely.

“R-Rose.” She stuttered, shaking her head a bit in disbelief. It was only then that she realized he was dressed like a Victorian hero from those period drama’s her mum fancied though would never admit it. There was also a bit of a steam-punk quality to him. For some reason, it suited him well in a way she couldn’t explain.

“Pleasure to meet you, Rose.” He said, warmly, turning once more and placing a hand on her elbow, guiding her down the corridor. “Now, as for the lot in the basement, they were plastic. Living plastic, to be precise, otherwise known as Autons. They were being controlled by a relay device on the roof.” He paused again, turning to her with a bit of apprehension. “You work here, am I correct?” He asked, and Rose nodded. “You aren’t particularly fond of your place of employment, are you?” She shook her head. “Excellent, because I’m afraid with that many Autons in the basement, I’m going to have to blow up the whole building.” He said casually as he escorted her once more.

“Blow it up!?” Rose exclaimed, looking at him aghast even as he didn’t slow down or allow her to stop.

“Yes, yes. I was afraid it would come to that, so before I went down to investigate I set a few explosives in key places.”

“What about Wilson?” Rose asked.

“I’m afraid anyone who was down in that basement before you arrived has already met an untimely end. You would have been among them had I not happened to hear you from the other side of the door.” The Doctor explained gently, and Rose’s heart broke for Wilson.

“He was set to retire.” She said to herself.

“I’m sorry,” He said, and seemed to genuinely mean it.

He guided her out the loading dock door, turning toward it as it swung shut and pointed the thing he used to short out the lift at it. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a clunky thing that looked a bit like a remote. He pressed a few buttons on it, set down by the door, then took her arm and guided her quickly away from the building.

“There, now. Since you have come quite close to danger once already tonight, I feel as though it’s imperative that I escort you home.” He said, casually taking the plastic arm she was still carrying and tossing it over head. Rose watched it sail into the dumpster. He hadn’t even looked to see where he was aiming.

“Right.” She said, unable to think of anything else. After a few steps, there was an explosion behind them.

Rose jumped, turning to see the top of her work place now set ablaze, hearing people scream and panic. The Doctor carried on as if nothing happened at all.

They walked in silence until the commotion caused by the explosion was faint, and Rose stopped looking over her shoulder to see if the police or anyone else would follow them. She _was_ with the person who blew up the building after all.

“So, Rose. Where in this wonderful city do you live? Is it far?” The Doctor asked.

“Umm,” Rose replied, shaking her head as if to clear it despite there not being much more than general confusion gathering about. “I took the bus. Powell Estate, ‘s where I live.”

“The bus!” The Doctor exclaimed. “Drove one through an amusement park of sorts once. Well then, where’s your stop.” He asked, and as she was about to tell him it was quite alright, he held up his hand to stop her. “I won’t take no for an answer, Rose. Buildings exploding generally cause all kinds of ill-meaning people to come out of the wood work.”

“Can take care of myself, thanks.” She snapped back, scowling. “Just ‘cause I got a little caught off guard back there doesn’t mean I’m some damsel needing rescuing, ya know.”

“I don’t doubt it.” He said, smiling warmly without a hint of disbelief in his tone. “I’ve met many people, Rose, and I know a strong, capable person when I meet one. At the very least, allow me to walk you to your bus stop. Allow me a bit of reassurance that you are at least away from the immediate draw of shadier beings.”

She considered, and when she didn’t see the harm, she nodded.

Once again they were quiet as she led him across the street to the nearest stop.

He stood beside her, hands behind his back, offering quick quirks of his lips on occasion when he caught her observing him while glancing about them.

He was quite fit. Bit short, if she was honest, but underneath all the layers she imagined he was quite sculpted. His blue eyes were also quite lovely, though now that she’d seen them for longer than a few seconds she realized there was something ancient about them, like they didn’t fit his face. He _looked_ to be in his mid to late thirties, a little worn as though he’d seen some hard times in his life, but his eyes were beyond his years.

And even the few, faint lines he had around his eyes and mouth when he smiled didn’t take away from his charm. If anything, they added to it. His hair looked soft, the curls inviting her to wrap a lock around her finger….

And _what_ was she thinking? Shaking herself, Rose turned away. Yes, he was a fit, charming bloke, but he was also the stranger who blew up her job because some shop dummies were moving about. Autons, or whatever. Didn’t really seem necessary to destroy a whole building when the control bit was supposedly on the roof. Wouldn’t it just shut’em all down if he dismantled it?

“I believe this is your route approaching.” He stated, and she turned and looked past him to see her bus coming up.

“Yeah.” She said, meeting his eyes again. “See ya.” She said, not sure if there was anything else to say.

“It was a pleasure meeting you, Rose.” He said sincerely, taking her hand and cupping it both of his.

She stepped away and boarded, looking out the window at the strange man who called himself the Doctor as he waved her off.

Through the ride home, Rose’s mind ran in circles. She thought of Wilson. She thought of Billy, wondering if he thought she was still inside. She wondered how the hell she was going to make any money now that she was out of a job.

She wondered how many phone calls her mum would get through the night.

 

* * *

 

 When Rose’s alarm went off the following morning, her mother promptly reminded her she didn’t have a job to go to. And while she wanted nothing more than to stay under the blankets and have a lie-in, Rose’s body was ready for her to rise and get on with her day even if there were nothing to get on with.

Getting out of bed and ready for the day, Rose emerged into the kitchen, expecting to find her Mum on the phone with anyone who may have possibly not gotten through the night before. Jackie had been on the phone from before Rose got in until long after she’d gone to bed. Mickey had rushed over, but no sooner had he ensured she was alive had he than attempted to coax her down to the pub so he wouldn’t feel like a git watching the game despite what Rose had went through.

She didn’t tell either of them about the Doctor.

How could she possibly explain him? Bloke dressed like he’s coming from the theater, going on about some sort of living plastic, and then escorted her to her bus stop after blowing up her job? Nope, she was good with telling everyone the same, bold faced lie: she didn’t want to wait for the lift so she took the stairs and headed out the side door. Billy, she was informed, had gotten distracted after Carol from the shop across came over to chat him up. He apologized, thinking he’d locked her in so he could have a drink with the woman before meeting his mates at the pub.

Rose didn’t really care. She’d managed to get out, and he didn’t have a job himself in the end.

“There’s Finches,” Jackie had suggested after breakfast. “You could try them, they’ve always got jobs.”

Rose eyed her mother incredulously. “Oh great, the butchers.”

“Well it might do ya good.” Jackie snapped back. “That shop was giving you airs and graces.”

Rose rolled her eyes. Airs and graces were earned at the more upscale shops. And while Henricks was quite a distance from Powell Estate, it was hardly like Rose had to shed her jeans and jumpers for pencil skirts and blouses to work there.

“And I’m not joking about getting compensation,” Jackie continued, either oblivious or ignoring Rose’s reaction. “You’ve had genuine shock and trauma. Arianna got two thousand quid off the council just because the old man behind the desk said she looked Greek!” Jackie continued as she headed down the hall to dry her hair and get ready for what ever Jackie did during the day.

Rose had tuned her out, about to turn to the next page of wanted adds when something near the front door caught her ear. A rustling of some kind, somethings that reminded her of ….

“Mum, you’re such a liar!” Rose yelled and cut off Jackie’s rambling. “I told you to nail that cat flap down, we’re gonna get strays.” She said as she got up to see if the kitty intruder was still lingering by the door of if it had the good sense to go back out.

She did not find a kitten in the entryway. She did, however, see the nails her mother swore she put in the cat flap laying on the floor by the door. In the flap were the exact number of holes to match said nail count.

She crept closer, feeling uneasy, knowing that no matter how big a cat was there was no way they could’ve pushed the flap open like that.

Rose jumped when she heard the knock on the door.

Hand clutched her her chest, she glanced at the baseball bat by the door before opening it and peeking outside.

The Doctor looked back at her, the smile on his face changing to surprise as he saw her.

“Hello, again, Rose.” He said, lips curling up slightly.

“What are you doing here?” She asked. “You stalking me or something’?”

“I assure you, it wasn’t my intention. I was simply trying to get a reading on the Autons from last night and the signal brought me here.” He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully at her. “You wouldn’t happen to be a copy of the real Rose, would you?” He then reached out, grabbing her hand and giving it a light squeeze before letting it go with Rose stuttering the whole time. “No, you have a skeletal structure, so you are certainly not plastic. Anyone else live with you?”

“Just my mum.” Rose partly started, gesturing over her shoulder.

“Would you mind if I came in? Make sure she’s real?”

“Might regret it, but yeah, come in.” She said, stepping aside and waving him in.

The Doctor nodded and smiled, glancing around at the walls and such, all while waving the strange cylindrical thing from the night before.

She led him down the hall a short ways her mother’s room where Jackie was still fussing with her hair before blow drying it. Her make up had already been applied for the day, though she hadn’t made herself decent just yet.

“There’s someone here about last night. Part of a sorta inquiry.” Rose said as she popped her head in the door way.

“Hello,” She heard the Doctor say over her shoulder.

Jackie immediately lowered the towel, her eyes narrowing in on the Doctor over Rose’s shoulder. She had that look, that Jackie Tyler: predator look that Rose had seen more times than she ever wanted to growing up. It nearly always preceded being told to head out to the shop for something or prompt encouragement to spend the night with Keisha or Shireen.

“Hello.” He said kindly, stepping forward with his hand extended like the innocent prey her mum was sizing him up to be.

Jackie took it, giving him as demure a smile as she could. “I’m Jackie, Rose’s mum.”

“The Doctor.” He replied, giving her hand a squeeze. Confusion and disappointment flashed in his eyes a moment, and he took his hand back. “I don’t mean to intrude so early in the morning, however, there was something pressing about the previous night that I had to investigate further. Allow me five, maybe ten minutes and I will be out of your hair.”

“Take your time, no rush.” Jackie replied flirtatiously.

The Doctor smiled and headed back toward the kitchen, either oblivious to Jackie and her non-to-subtle hints or not interested.

Rose hoped for the latter if for no other reason than she didn’t want to think her of her mum in that way. She closed Jackie’s door, ignoring the grumbles that she couldn’t quite hear, and followed to Doctor back to the kitchen.

“I really am truly sorry for the intrusion, Rose.” He said after she passed him in the living room. He was looking around, arm extended with the silver thing with the red nub in hand. It was making a humming, whirring noise as he slowly loved it in front of him. “But I’m still getting the signal here, and I need to find out why.”

“’S fine,” She said with a shrug. “Can I get you anything?”

“No, I’m fine thank you.” He said as he moved forward slowly.

Rose plopped down on a chair, pulling her leg up to rest her head on her knee while she watched him.

“They said they found a body on the news.”

“Your Wilson, I’d imagine. He was probably in the basement, or at least the lowest levels. Probably protected him a bit.”

“Probably.” Rose acknowledged. “Probably have a funeral for him soon.”

“As is the custom among you humans.” He said as his eyes scanned the ceiling, brow furrowing.

“Why do you keep saying that?” Rose asked.

“Saying what?” The Doctor looked at her, brow still furrowed but in a softer, more confused way.

“’You humans.’”

“Because that’s what you are.”

“And you’re not.”

“No.”

That gave Rose pause. “How d’ya mean? If you’re not human, what are you then?”

“I’m a ….” He started sincerely, but stopped as a strange scratching, thudding noise cut him off. “Rose, do you have any pets? A cat perhaps?”

Rose shook her head, rising slowly from her chair. The Doctor lowered his arm and crouched beside the sofa. They stared, and Rose hoped she’d see the tell-tale glow of a cats eyes in the dark space.

A hand shot out and grabbed the Doctor by the throat.

Rose yelped as he fell back, struggling to keep his balance and get upright while pulling the hand from his throat. She sprung up, grabbing the arm and yanking as hard as she could. The momentum of his push and her pull dislodged the hand but had them tumbling together on to the coffee table.

Rose paid no mind to the glass as it shattered beneath her, nor did she particularly worry about the Doctor laying on top of her. She was watching the plastic hand moving around the floor of her living room like Thing from the Addam’s Family.

The Doctor’s weight shifted on top of her her, and she heard the whirring of the silver thing as he extended his arm toward the hand and used it.

The hand stumbled around like it was drunk, fell over as if it collapsed, and stopped moving all together.

“Rose, you alright?” Her mother called down the hall.

“M’ fine.” Rose shouted back as she caught her breath. The room seemed deafening now for some reason even though there wasn’t anything loud about what happened except the breaking of the table. It was likely just the sound of her blood rushing through her veins that made her brain feel as though the whole encounter was noisy beyond reason.

She and the Doctor remained on the pieces of the table as they seemed to be collectively catching their breath. It might have been seconds or minutes for all Rose knew, but then he got up and extended a hand to help her to her feet.

“Are you injured?” He asked, stepping behind her and lifting her hair. He was a Doctor, after all. It only made sense that he examined her for cuts and the like.

“No, m’ fine. Really.” She replied, looking down at the remains of the coffee table. “Good thing Mum hated that thing.”

“Was a bit gauche, wasn’t it?” The Doctor replied as he picked up the arm, looking it over it.

“You’re one to talk.” Rose shot back teasingly, tongue between her teeth as she smiled at him. He grinned back for a moment before looking at the arm again.

“With any luck, this is all I’ll need to properly calibrate the tracking. I’ll be able to properly pinpoint the signal for the Nestene Consciousness much more easily.”

“Yeah.” Rose replied, then processed what he actually said. “Wait. What?”

“The Nestene Consciousness. What controls the Autons. Anyway, I am sorry, again, Rose. I hope this is, perhaps the last time we cross paths like this.” He turned, heading for the door.

He was out it before Rose realized he was leaving.

“Hold on a minute!” She called after him, and while he slowed his step, the Doctor didn’t stop. “You can’t just go … swanning off.”

“It’s what I do, I’m afraid. I come by, try and fix a few wrongs, usually end up making more of a mess than I intended. Then, as you say, swan off.” He replied as the headed down the stairs of the building and walked across the lot. Rose was nearly breathless keeping up with his long, quick stride.

“But the arm tried to kill you.” She tried to reason with him.

“Yes, but I disabled it. Completely harmless now. Or, I suppose I could say it was ‘armless’?” He quipped, his lips turning upward. He was so bloody attractive and yet ….

“Who are you?” She asked shaking her head in amusement and wonder.

“I told you, I’m the Doctor.”

“Just the Doctor?”

“Just the Doctor,” He acknowledged.

“Is that supposed to sound impressive?”

“I’m not sure. I suppose so, maybe. It’s been a long time since I chose the name. I selected it because it was a promise to help people, though admittedly I haven’t done much helping lately. More destruction, it would seem.” He paused, appearing thoughtful as his eyes took a far off quality while staring off into the distance. “Which, I’m afraid, is why we must part ways now. Being with me, Rose, is dangerous. And you have your whole life ahead of you. There must be a goal you wish to attain, a plan you’ve had in the back of your mind for your future. You humans always do.”

“I dunno,” Rose furrowed her brow. “Never really thought much of it. ‘S always just been … work, telly.”

“Beans on toast?” He raised an eyebrow. Rose snorted, but the humor was gone quickly as he really studied her. The more he had, the more confused he seemed to become. “I sense you’re meant for great things, Rose, but I can’t see what they are. Which is strange, I can usually get a glimpse, at least. But with you … with you, there’s nothing.”

Rose’s heart seemed to stop in her chest. “What are ya, psychic?”

“No. Telepathic, yes. An over developed time sense, at times, but not psychic. Time is not set in stone, for the most part. But I can’t see ….”

Without conscious thought, Rose took a step toward the Doctor and took his fingers lightly in hers. “Who are you?” She asked again.

He seemed to consider his response. “Do you recall when you were a child being told that the world was spinning quite fast? That you were moving around the sun at speeds so great that you could not feel them? Do you recall that disbelief, Rose, that you could be going so fast and not feel it? Come on, I know you had it, you lot always do.” She nodded slightly, unable to tear her eyes away from his. “Well I feel it. The turn of the Earth, the ground beneath our feet spinning at a thousand miles an hour. I can sense the entire planet dancing around the sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour, spinning around her partner like an intricate step on a ballroom floor. You and I, we are falling through space while clinging to the skin of this tiny, little world, and I am aware of every second.” He squeezed her fingers. “That, Rose, is who I am. I am more than I appear, and infinitely more dangerous to be around than you can imagine. So return home, live your life, know that it has been a pleasure.” He bowed over her hand and let it go, turning quickly and walking toward a blue police box.

Well, that made sense, she supposed. He seemed a police sort, though a bit odd.

She turned, heading back to her building, trying to push the Doctor from her mind. But even as she entered the flat, her mother grumbling about the destroyed furniture, there was something about him that Rose simply could not brush off.


	3. Rose pt 2

Perhaps being led out to a shed in the back garden of a strange man’s house wasn’t the greatest sign, but Rose followed Clive out nonetheless.

After helping her mother clean up the remains of the old coffee table, Rose steeled herself and went over to Mickey’s so that she could use his computer and attempt to look up the Doctor, to find out who he was. What she had found was a conspiracy website from a local man. A phone call later, and Mickey was driving her to meet the bloke while protesting it the whole time. She didn’t care.

Clive unlocked the shed, waved her in first. “A lot of stuff’s quite sensitive.” He explained as Rose took in the world map covered in various colored pins. On the side was a color-coded list indicating a time period dating back to the 1500s. There were various print outs posted all over the walls, and a computer on a corner shelf currently turned off. “I couldn’t just send it to you. Government might intercept it, you see.”

“Why you say that?” Rose asked, watching as Clive retrieved a banker box off a shelf.

“Been proof he works for them, or as much proof as you can call anything you find.”

“What, like Bond or something?” Rose asked, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear as Clive took the lid off the box and started to separate papers into stacks.

“In a way, I guess. See, thing is, if you dig enough, keep a lively mind, this Doctor keeps cropping up all over the place. Political diaries, conspiracy theories, even ghost stories. No first name, no last name, just ‘the Doctor’. And the title doesn’t just seem to belong to one man or one generation. I counted eight different men throughout history that carry the title, except the same face will pop up in different eras, so it must by a title passed down from father and son as well. See?”

He took out some photos, most blurry and hard to actually see. Rose shuffled through them, taking in the different profiles, and how there didn’t seem to be one that matched the man she’d met.

That was until she came across a photo of a glitzy party and in behind the smiling couples was the Doctor. He was dressed a bit different, much more outlandish than the eccentric, steam-punk meets Victorian that she knew. He also looked younger, more care-free, and on his arm was a red-head who looked like she belonged at such an event.

“That one was taken December 31st, 1999.” Clive pointed out. “But there are more of him,” he added, handing Rose various photos of differing quality. Some it was very obviously the same man she had met, others it was more difficult to tell.

“He never seems to be with the same people twice, this particular ‘Doctor’. Those that have a name associated with them, a time and place and family, they almost never return. Or they refuse to talk. It’s like he’s too dangerous to mention, so many of them try to just … forget him. Or they don’t survive an encounter with him in order to remember.” He looked at Rose gravely. “If you’ve met the Doctor, Rose, it’s safe to say that something terrible is going to happen. And if I were you, I would let those you love know. Because if there is one thing I believe I know for sure, it’s that this Doctor is the most dangerous one to know.”

“Right,” Rose said, nodding once and handing the photos back to Clive. She turned to leave, but Clive caught her arm.

“Be careful, Rose. Those who call themselves ‘Doctor’ do not seem of this world. They could be immortal, or an alien. But if he’s singled you out, then God help you.”

Rose nodded more slowly, thankful as Clive let go of her wrist. She moved as slow and smoothly to the door as she could, not looking back while she struggled to even out her breathing. Her heart hammered in her chest as she made her way out the shed and through the back garden, trying not to run to Mickey’s beetle as Clive’s son was in the front garden.

She moved around to the passenger seat, plopped in, and let out a sigh of relief.

“Alright, he was a nutter. Off his head, _complete_ online conspiracy freak. You win.” She said, not looking at Mickey as she allowed her heart and mind to settle as much as she could. She closed her eyes, let out a breath.

The man she knew saved her life. Twice. After all, that arm could have gone after her as well. He was kind, gentle, worn but warm. He would not hurt her. Her life, when with him, was not in danger. But Clive’s words circled in her mind in a way that unsettled her even as she tried to forget them. “What’re we gonna do tonight? I fancy a pizza.” Rose said in an attempt to distract.

“Pizzaaaa. P-p-p-pizza.” Mickey stuttered. Rose cracked her eye open a fraction to peek at him. Something was off about him, though she couldn’t put her finger on what.

“Or Chinese?” She suggested.

“Pizza!” Mickey reaffirmed.

“Alright then.” Rose said as Mickey started the car. The car jerked, swerved a bit, and Rose’s eyes shot open. “Oi, Micks, what’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing, Babe, sugar, darling.” He replied in quick succession.

She eyed him over again, wondering to herself if he’d had such pore-free skin as of late and she simply hadn’t noticed. A knot began to form in the pit of her stomach as a weariness set over her.

_“If you’ve met the Doctor, Rose, it’s safe to say that something terrible is going to happen.”_

Clive’s words of warning whirled in Rose’s mind, but she refused to believe them. She turned her head away from Mickey, promptly ignoring the eerie way he wouldn’t stop smiling as though he was attempting to flirt.

 

* * *

 

“Do you think I should try the hospital?” Rose asked Mickey after they had been settled at the restaurant and ordered. He was still acting a bit weird, smiling too much, remaining oddly silent. She noted on the telly’s around that there was a match on, and he was staring at her. “Suki said they had a few jobs going in the canteen. Or maybe I could do my A levels?” She considered, her mind shifting to the possibility. “Could do college, become a secretary. Not much better, mind, but still better than dishing out ships or working at the butchers. I dunno, what do you think?” She asked, hopeful his odd mood would put him on board with continuing her education.

“So, where did you meet this Doctor?” Mickey asked, smile never wavering. There was a weird shadow that passed over his eyes, but his stare down of her never wavered.

“Seriously? Bringing that up now?”

“Because I reckon it started back at the shop, am I right? He had something to do with that?”

Heat rose in Rose’s cheeks, and she looked away, wrapping a lock of hair around her finger. “No,” She replied softly.

“Come on.” Mickey prodded.

“Sorta,” Rose admitted.

“What was he doing there?” Mickey asked.

“I dunno, Micks, and I’m not going on about him. Talk about him much more and I might end up like that nutter Clive, thinking he’s a government agent or a sign the world’s ending.”

“But you can trust me, sweetheart! Babe, sugar, darling sugar.” Mickey replied, and the hairs on the back of Rose’s neck rose. “You can tell me anything. Tell me about the Doctor and what he’s planning, and I can help you, Rose. Because that’s all I really wanna do, sweetheart, babe, sugar, sweetheart.”

“What’s wrong with you, Micks?” Rose asked, frowning and dropping her hand on the table. She’d known Mickey since childhood, and not once had he acted so odd. Something wasn’t right, she knew it wasn’t. And as such, her hand crept toward her butter knife. She once learned from Keisha that if she put enough force behind it, she could still do damage to an attacker. And while Mickey wasn’t a threat, something in her gut told her that this was not the Mickey she knew.

“Champagne?” A male voice inquired, and a sense of safe halted her finger walk to the utensil.

“We didn’t order any champagne.” Mickey replied without looking away from her. He went to reach for her, but Rose drew her hand away promptly. He didn’t seem to notice. “Where’s the Doctor?”

“Miss, your champagne?” The waiter asked.

“We didn’t order any….” She looked up, her eyes widening as she took in the sight of the Doctor shaking the bottle.

“No? Such a shame, you two looked like you were about to celebrate something.”

“Look, we didn’t order it,” Mickey said, and Rose glanced back over to see that he had finally pulled his eyes away from her. Unfortunately, he appeared darkly giddy at the sight of the Doctor. “Gotcha.”

“Are you certain about that?” The Doctor asked, pointing the corked end of the bottle and twisted the wire around neck.

The cork launched off, hitting Mickey squarely in the forehead. Rose launched to her feet as the cork disappeared, Mickey’s head rippling like a water bed, and then his jaw worked like he was moving something about in his mouth. He spit out the cork, getting to his feet, teeth bared in a vicious way. “Anyway.” He said casually, lifting his hand as though he was about to karate chop the table. On it’s way down, his hand turned into a block of plastic, turning the table to splinters.

Rose yelped, jumping back behind the Doctor just as he launched forward and grabbed the Mickey-looking thing’s head. There was a struggle as the Doctor twisted and pulled, bracing his foot against the thing’s chest.

As the Doctor fought with what ever the thing was that replaced her boyfriend, Rose ran to the nearest wall and pulled the fire alarm just as screams erupted from the other dinners.

“Everyone out, now! She called to them, though she really didn’t need to. The restaurant was emptying quickly, leaving the Doctor holding the head of the thing while the body moved about smashing things with little balance or wherewithal.

With the head tucked to his side, the Doctor ran toward her and grabbed her hand with his free one. “Run,” He said as he gave her a tug and lead her through the now empty kitchens.

They burst through into an alley, and the Doctor let go of Rose’s hand to close the door and remove his cylinder thingy from his jacket. Keeping the door closed with his hip, he pointed the red tip at the lock and it hummed.

What ever he was doing, Rose somehow doubted it would hold. She ran to the gates and yanked, only to not the chain and padlock a bit too late.

“Open the gate! Use the tube thing!” Rose called to him.

The Doctor smirked as he walked calmly toward a blue police box much like the one he entered earlier in the day. “What? This? It’s a sonic screwdriver.”

“Use it!” Rose begged.

“Oh, I have a much better escape plan than running through there. The Auton will catch up to you if you try to run. Come in here with me, we’ll be safe.”

A smash on the door drew Rose’s attention for a moment, and the metal door they had just run through now had large dents in it.

“We can’t hide inside a wooden box! You saw what it did to the tables in there.”

“It’s not really wooden, I promise. It’s the safest place in the universe. Now,” he said as he unlocked the door and waved her in. “Come on, I’ll explain more when we’re inside.”

He entered the box, and Rose looked between it and the door now dangerously dented out.

Taking a leap of faith, Rose ran inside the Police box.

She stopped breathing nearly immediately. It was gleaming and white, metal and much, much larger than it should be. What’s more, she spotted corridors that obviously led to other places.

She promptly ran back out.

Circling the police box, she felt the four walls, trying to make sense of what was going on and why it was not at all what it should have been inside.

 _“Those who call themselves ‘Doctor’ do not seem of this world. They could be immortal, or an alien.”_ Clive’s words echoed in her head as her heart launched and stayed in her throat. She looked up at the big, blue box, trying to reconcile it, when the sound of the door to the restaurant giving way prompted her to run back inside.

“It’s gonna follow us.” She told the Doctor as she closed the door behind her.

“I promise you, the assembled hoards of Genghis Khan couldn’t get through, and they tried, believe me. Now, if you’ll hold on for just another moment longer, I will explain everything.” He said as he focused on connecting the fake head of Mickey to something on the shiny, metal control panel he stood before. After a few moments, he grinned a bit. “There we are. The arm I got from you this morning turned out to be too simple. But the head is perfect. I can trace the signal back to the original source.” He straightened up, moving around the controls to stand in front of her with a few feet of distance between them. “Now, I’m sure you have questions. Where would you like to start?”

“Umm… the inside’s bigger than the outside?” Rose said.

“Yes it is. Technically the inside is another dimension. This, my ship, is called the TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension in Space.”

“Space? Ship?” Rose shook her head a bit. “It’s alien.”

“Yes.” He replied, hands clasped behind his back.

“Are you an alien?” Rose asked.

“I suppose to you, I am, yes. I’m known as a Time Lord.” He replied with a shy grin. “I hope that’s alright.”

“Yeah,” Rose said, stepping closer to him. Her eyes shifted to the head of Mickey on the console. “Did they kill him? The … otones?”

“Autons,” The Doctor corrected gently, moving toward the head again. “And no, I doubt very much that they would have killed him. A bit like the Zygons in that it’s helpful for them to keep the original alive.” He said as he started punching buttons on the controls, and staring at a screen with a crease in his brow.

“Is it … is it a bad sign that he’s melting?” Rose asked, pointing to the now soft and collapsing head.

The Doctor looked to her first, the crease in he brow still there, before looking down and seeing the features of Mickey’s face swiftly softening and becoming goo.

“No! No, stop, I’m not, I didn’t … no, no, no!” He pulled on his curls before frantically moving around the controls. “Hold on to the rail, Rose, it’s going to get bumpy. I’m trying to ….” He grunted as he pushed on a lever that seemed to stick. “Trace the signal before it fades ….”

The column in the middle of the controls started to bob up and down as a grinding noise filled the room and sent goosebumps over Rose’s skin. Her lips upturned involuntarily in a strange rush of excitement.

The floor shook slightly, and the room went silent as the Doctor hung his head.

“I got close, but not close enough. I still need to track down the signal.”

“How do you mean?” Rose asked as he stepped away from the controls, taking her elbow gently as he passed her and leading her back through the door.

When they stepped outside, the smell of the Thames hit Rose’s nose, making it wrinkle involuntarily. She glanced around, seeing the London eye not far away, wondering briefly how they managed to emerge not only so far from where they started, but also where it was oddly quiet.

“We moved.” She said, looking up at the Doctor. “Does it fly?”

“Not really. More disappears and reappears.”

“What about the headless thing? Is it still on the loose?” She asked, chewing her lip.

“No, it would have melted with the head. At this rate we should be more worried that the Autons will know and try and duplicate your boyfriend again.”

“Why? Why would they do that?” Rose asked.

The Doctor tilted his head in thought. “I would think they would believe if they managed to fool you, than they could do the same to others who may know him. Your family, his, anyone they think might have had an encounter with me. Destroy me, destroy you, nothing will be left to stop them from taking over the planet.”

“But why? What’s it got against us?”

“Nothing at all. Autons simply love a polluted planet, and unfortunately for you lot, this era of Earth’s history is the worst for it. I imagine once it’s food stores were destroyed in the …. Well, when it was destroyed they had no other choice but to hunt another one.”

“So how are you going to stop them?” Rose asked. “Cause you blew up my job and the arm was still able to hunt ya down. Ripped the head off the other one and it chased after us, still. Gotta be a permanent solution?”

“Oh, there is.” The Doctor replied, reaching into his jacked and searching. “You see, the Autons are controlled by the Nestene Consciousness. It’s mother and father all in one. Produces the Autons and creates the connection needed to have them move about. But it’s plastic in liquid form, so all I need is this.” He said, showing Rose a vial of blue liquid.

“Which is?” Rose asked.

“Anti-plastic. I plan to use it as more of a threat, encourage them to move along, but if they don’t….” He said as he pocketed the vial once again.

“So … how do you find it?” Rose asked as the Doctor’s eyes grew sad and distant again.

“Well, it would be under the transmitter, I imagine. The consciousness would want to control every piece of plastic on the planet, not just the ones it creates itself. That’s how the shop dummies got involved, I imagine. But the transmitter may not be easy to find.”

“What would it look like?” Rose asked.

“Round and massive. Something near the heart of the city, and not far from where we currently are.”

Rose looked over his shoulder and stared at the London eye. He frowned, and looked at her, then over his shoulder. “What?” He asked, looking over his shoulder and back at her. Then his eyes lit up and he turned his whole body around to see it. “Of course. Of course!” He smacked his forehead. “Why build something when you can utilize what’s already in place. Of course!” He spun back around, his face filled with boyish excitement. “Come with me! Come see this through to the end of me, Rose.” He said, clasping her hands in his.

_“Those that have a name associated with them, a time and place and family, they almost never return.”_

Rose could hear Clive’s warning in her head, but her heart, maybe even her soul if she believed such things, were screaming to go with him. He shifted his grip on one of her hands, clasping it in a hold as he shifted his body as if he meant to run at a drop of a hat. Her heart was racing, her smile grew.

“Let’s go.” She said, causing his smile to grow before he launched into a run and pulled her along with him.

It was terribly cliche, even to Rose’s mind, but it felt as though pieces were falling into place as they raced over the bridge to the London eye, laughing like school children the whole way. Her hand fit perfectly in his cool one, their strides matched even if she seemed to be a bit more winded than he was. In that moment, it was like Rose had found the friend she’d sought out her whole life and could never find.

“Right,” he said as the came to a stop in front of the eye. “I can’t imagine anywhere else the transmitter could be, but I don’t see anything that would indicate the Consciousness is around. Perhaps it’s underground, but where would we get in?”

Rose let go of his hand and peered over the side of the stone wall where the bridge rail connected. She spotted the manhole cover and grinned.

“How about there?” She asked, pointing to it as the Doctor came up beside her.

“Looks good to me,” He said, glancing about and finding the entry to the staircase leading down to it. “Come along.” He said, taking her hand once again and leading her down.

Rose was about to offer to help remove the cover, but the Doctor lifted it without much effort.

Instead of pitch black like she was expecting, a red glow met Rose’s eyes. Light smoke billowed up, the scent of burnt plastic accompanying it.

“Bit ominous.” Rose joked.

“Can see how you humans would think that.” The Doctor smirked. He offered her head hand once again, helping her down to the ladder as only a gentleman would. She didn’t have the heart to tell him she could have managed on her own.

He followed her down, and once they were on solid ground again, he took the lead once more. The Doctor approached a door, looked over his shoulder to ensure Rose was near, and pulled it open slowly.

Reaching back, he waited for Rose’s hand to slide into his before leading her through the door and into a vast chamber that reminded Rose of old gang movies. She imagined there had been a few movies filmed down here before it was taken over by a plastic army. There was even a vat of something that reminded Rose of molten lava she’d see in volcano films but in a container similar to where the mafia bosses would always try and drown the snitches and the prisoners.

“That’s the Nestene Consciousness.” The Doctor said, pointing to the vat.

Rose frowned. “That?” She pointed, and he nodded. “How are you gonna reason with that to move along?”

“Politely.” He replied, letting go of her hand and heading down the nearby stairs to get a bit closer. He leaned over the railing, drawing the attention of the shop dummy soldiers. “I see an audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract in accordance to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation.” The Doctor’s voice was unwavering, powerful, with an edge of danger to it that had Rose’s eyes widen.

There was a gurgle, and the thing in the vat moved about.

“Thank you. May I have permission to approach?” The Doctor asked with a slight bow.

“Rose!” She heard a harsh whisper, and Rose whipped her head to the side, finding Mickey crouched in a corner.

“Mickey,” She breathed, darting toward him. She felt the Doctor’s eyes on her as she knelt down by her shaking boyfriend. “You stink.” She said without thinking as she got closer.

“That thing down there, the liquid. It can talk, Rose.”

“Yes, and if you don’t mind, I am attempting to have a conversation with it.” The Doctor said to Mickey before turning back to the vat. “If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilization by means of warped, shunt technology ravaged in the Time War. So if you would kindly use it one more time and leave the planet before I call in reinforcements….”

The vat gurgled and moved again.

“Oh no, this is an invasion. You can’t tell me you have a constitutional right to be here.” The Doctor countered.

The plastic in the vat formed something like a wave, the gurgles more of a hiss.

“I believe I was speaking, so kindly listen and wait you turn to speak. Your being here will stunt the development of the planet and it’s people. Not to mention that being a level five planet, you would have had to see permission to be ….”

“Doctor!” Rose called out as she noticed two shop dummies emerging from the shadows behind him.

He wasn’t quick enough as one grabbed both the Doctor’s arms and held them behind his back while the other searched his person. It pulled the vial of anti-plastic from inside his jacket, and Rose’s heart dropped to her stomach.

“I wasn’t going to use that, not unless I had to.” The Doctor attempted to reassure. He was met by more angry gurgles. “I was not going to attack you, honestly. I wanted to help.” More gurgles, and doors behind him opened, revealing the TARDIS.

Panic began to grip Rose, her chest heaving as her eyes shifted constantly between the Doctor and his ship.

“Yes, that is my ship. But I swear, I didn’t fight in the war, not that way….”

There was a loud, gurgling roar before the room vibrated and pulses of something like electricity began to flow from the vat.

“What’s it doing?” Rose asked the Doctor, her near-hyperventilation causing her voice to shriek.

“It identified the TARDIS as superior technology, and knowing what I am, it’s terrified. It’s going to start the invasion. You need to get out of here, Rose, now.”

Mickey clamoured past her, and Rose followed him, looking back at the Doctor as he struggled to get free. They headed to the stairs that lead out, but just as they passed the TARDIS to head toward them, a chunk of the ceiling fell and crushed the steps.

“Stairs are gone!” Mickey panicked as Rose yelped.

She turned back to the TARDIS and yanked on the door to no avail.

“Over there.” Mickey pointed. “There’s a way over there.” He went to head for what ever escaped he seemed to notice, but Rose paused.

The Doctor was still struggling, but while he couldn’t quite get his grip free from his plastic captures, she noticed they didn’t move.

Rose eyed the chains hanging from the ceiling, noted the ax on the wall nearby. It was suicidal, this plan formulating in her head. But what other choice did she have? She was likely going to die if she did nothing, if she managed to escape. At least this way, everyone else stood a chance.

“Come on, Rose! Just leave him!” She heard Mickey call as she grabbed the ax. “There’s nothing you can do.”

And how often was she told that in her life? There was nothing she could do. Because of her upbringing. Because of her lack of education. Because she wasn’t meant for anything further.

“I’ve got no A levels.” She said as she huffed the ax onto her shoulder. “No job.” She put her whole weight into the swing as she hacked the chain away. “No future.” She grabbed the chain and climbed up on the railing.

“Tell you what I have got, thought. Jericho Junior School under 7s gymnastic team. I go the bronze.”

She took a leap and swung.

Her feet collided with the Auton holding the anti-plastic, sending it toppling over the rail and right into the vat below just as the Doctor managed to toss the one holding him over his shoulders. Whether it landed in the vat or not, Rose wasn’t sure. As she swung back toward him, the Doctor plucked her off the chain and hugged her tightly.

“Amazing. You’re amazing.” He laughed. “But we’re in trouble. The Nestene isn’t stable, and the anti-plastic will make it worse. We need to head to the TARDIS.” He turned, clutching her hand and heading up to his ship.

“Mickey,” Rose called, seeing he didn’t get far in his escape plan after all. He nervously ran back toward her.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

Rose merely grinned, waving him to follow her and the Doctor inside.

“Holy shit!” Mickey exclaimed as he stepped inside the TARDIS behind her, and Rose waited by the doors for him to move a couple feet in further before closing them shut.

Mickey’s legs seemed to give out, and he collapsed on the floor, clutching the railing.

“Well, I have to admit that that’s a first time reaction.” The Doctor mused. “Now, let’s see. I believe I found you … ah, yes, right here.” He said, turning some knobs and flicking some switched before throwing a big one. That wonderful, grinding noise filled the room again, the column bobbing along. It seemed like no time at all before it shuddered to a stop. “This should be you.” The Doctor said, waving to the doors.

Mickey was up on his feet and outside before Rose could turn around and follow.

Sure enough, she found herself on the estates, the same alley she’d followed him to earlier in the day. Mickey stumbled out, half crawling backward until he was against a graffiti covered wall.

In the distance, police and ambulance sirens mixed with indignant and panicked cries as people tried to figure out what was going on.

Rose took out her mobile, ringing her mother to ensure she was alright in the chaos.

“Rose!” Her mother answered immediately. “Rose, don’t go out of the house! It’s not safe.”

“Already was, Mum, I’m okay.” She replied with a light laugh.

“There were all these things, Rose. And they were shooting, and ….”

“Buy, mum.” Rose replied, hanging up before Jackie could keep her on her mobile all night. She turned to Mickey, taking a couple steps toward him. “A fat lot of good you were.” She teased.

He merely whimpered, looking from her to the TARDIS.

Rose turned, seeing the Doctor leaning elegantly in the doorway. “You weren’t much better, ya know.” She smiled at him, tongue between her teeth, peeking out the corner of her mouth.

His smile stretched. “No, I suppose I wasn’t. But you have to admit, I wasn’t doing too badly.”

“Suppose not. Though you would be dead if it wasn’t for me.” Rose said, head held high.

“We all would be.” He said, shifting so he stood with one hand outside the ship, hands dropping to his side before one lifted slightly toward her, palm out. “So come with me. Don’t think I didn’t hear that little pep talk you gave yourself before you risked your life to save mine. Come with me, see the universe.”

“Don’t!” Mickey said, grabbing on to her leg. “He’s an alien. He’s a _thing._ ”

“Needless to say, I won’t be taking him.”

Rose looked down at Mickey clinging to her leg, then back up to the Doctor. “Is it always this dangerous?” She asked.

He seemed to consider his answer. “Tonight, I righted a wrong set in motion because of events beyond our control. Events that should never have happened in such a devastating capacity. There are more out there. More things that need to be fixed, and I could use someone at my side while I do it. And not just through the Universe, but through time as well. We’d be traveling into the future, and back in the past. On Earth and on other planets. It’s dangerous, yes. But something tells me you aren’t afraid of the danger.” He replied, hand lifting a bit higher. “Would you like to make a difference with me, Rose?”

She looked down at Mickey again, seeing him shake his head vehemently.

He didn’t want her to go, didn’t want her to take a risk. He wanted her there, coming by his place for a snog and a shag, to eat bagged lunches by the fountain in the square and heading out to the pub for a match in the evenings. Her mum would want her to work at the butchers, or the chippy, where she would be close to home until she would eventually move in with Mickey.

_Every day like the one before._

Rose looked to the Doctor, seeing the uncertainty in his eyes after her taking so long to reply. There was a hurt there, as well as an acceptance, like it wasn’t the first time he’d been told no. His hand began to droop, palm turning back toward his body.

She looked at Mickey. “Thanks,” she said, kissing his head.

“For what?” he asked as he let go of her leg and got to her feet.

She smiled sadly. “Exactly,” She replied, squeezing his arm briefly before turning back to the Doctor.

His eyes lit up with hope, and her sad smile changed to one of excitement before she launched herself toward him. He stepped aside, allowing her entrance, and closed the door.

He never looked back.

Neither had Rose.


	4. On the TARDIS

"You must be tired. After everything that transpired today, the events of the night before, you could probably use a good night's rest. Well, not night. There are no nights on the TARDIS, after all." The Doctor said as he lead Rose, his new companion, through the corridors of the ship. His hand at the center of her back to guide her, he watched as she took in everything with a glint of gleeful wonder.

The TARDIS, much to his surprise, opened doors as they moved to show Rose what was behind them, humming as if pleased and lights flickering with each whispered compliment or remark of intrigue from their passenger.

"Something wrong with your lights?" She asked after the sixth time it happened.

The Doctor smiled. "No. The TARDIS is sentient, and the lights flickering is her way of blushing." There was a drop in pitch of the hum. "Oh, stop it. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. Besides, she has a right to know."

"Know what?" Rose asked.

"She's also telepathic. She sort of merges with your mind a little, helps you understand alien languages in the verbal and written form. Unless it can't be translated, like my language." He replied, gesturing to the circular Gallifreyan above each door.

"Wait, she's in my head?" Rose asked, stopping in the middle of the corridor and grabbing his arm.

"I promise, she's not poking around and rooting through your thoughts, or anything of the sort. It's really something like how we're standing. We're close enough to touch, but I'm not invading your personal space. Or, at least, I don't believe I am." He said with a grin, feeling oddly shy around this girl who had barely reached adulthood by human standards.

The unease in Rose's face melted away, replaced by that charming little grin where her tongue poked out. He liked it; it was cheeky, and made him think of secrets between friends.

"You're good." She said, giving him a gentle nudge with her elbow. "Let ya know if you get too close, yeah?"

"Alright. I would just hate for … Mickey?" He asked, inquiring politely. He knew Rickey wasn't right, but it was sticking in his mind. He blamed the frequent bouts of memory problems that came with this regeneration.

Rose's smile faded. "Yeah. Not sure … I mean, I did up and leave, didn't I?" She asked, biting her thumb and scrunching her face. "But I mean, 's not like things were good, yeah? I mean, they were good, I suppose, but not … not the way I think it should be. 'S like we were comfortable." She explained, flailing her hands about as they moved at a slightly slower pace. "'S the thing, though. 'S why I was so ready to leap. Was boring. Life was boring. And just …."

"Oh, you don't have to tell me." The Doctor assured. "I ran away from home as well. And a spouse, though I'm not sure I was ever really invested in that marriage. More like a business partnership in order to reproduce optimal off spring."

"You've got kids?" Rose asked, immediately looking around as if Time Tots would just come leaping through the walls.

"I had a child, yes. Many, many, _many_ years ago. And she had a child, and then she …."

"Wait, hold up." Rose stopped him by stepping in front of him so quickly his chest bounced against her arms. She stared at him. Or studied him more likely. "So, let me get this straight. Your daughter had … so that means that you have …."

"I was a great grandfather, maybe more."

"Was?"

Oh she was insightful, this one. "The war I have spoken of. It was brutal, and many of people were lost. Now, my granddaughter remained on Earth where she married a human and had a son, but I'm afraid I don't know for sure what happened to them since before the battle broke out."

"So why didn't you look for them while you were there?" Rose asked, curious and not at all accusatory.

His hearts clenched in his chest, and he looked at the shiny new walls. "I did something during the war that may have had repercussions on them. It was necessary, I still believe that, but I don't know if it affected them. And while Alex is only a half Time Lord, Susan, my granddaughter, was fully so. She may have been called back against her will, as Rassilon knows most Time Lords who weren't on Gallifrey were."

"Gallifrey," Rose repeated. "That's your planet."

"Was my planet." He corrected without thinking, and he could see the questions forming on her lips. "Enough for tonight. As I said before, you must be tired. If you're going to travel with me, you'll have more than enough time to ask as many questions of me as you want. We are, after all, in a time machine."

Rose snickered. "Suppose. So where on this transdiminsional ship is my room?" A door down the hall creaked open. "Well, we were close then."

"Or she moved your room closer," The Doctor countered, eying his cheeky ship with good humor. "Head on in, get some sleep. If you need anything, I'll be in the console room. The TARDIS will likely move your door closer if that's the case."

"What about you? Where's your room?" She asked him.

He chuckled nervously. "I actually don't sleep much, Rose. It's just the way my biology works. A quick kip in my arm chair usually suffices. Though come to think of it, she got rid of the arm chair when she redecorated." He frowned, realizing all that was in the console room now were those horrid jump seats. The library, which had never had a sitting area before, may have one now. Or perhaps he'd actually use his bedroom at some point when he needed rest.

"Alright then, Doctor. 'Night." She said, giving a quick wave before she backed up a couple steps. She turned and headed into her room, glancing at him over her shoulder again before disappearing through the doorway. Once the latch clicked shut, the Doctor's shoulders slumped, and he headed for the console room.

While searching for the Nestene Consciousness after meeting Rose for the first time, he came across some general information stored in his TARDIS data banks from the war. It was nothing, really. A foot note listing a planet affected by the war. Coinquinatio 4 was destroyed near the middle of the Time War, and while the relatively inhabitable planet meant nothing to those on Gallifrey, it meant everything to the plastic race. It was one of their best possible food sources, and when what ever hit it did so, it sent them looking for somewhere equally toxic for their consumption.

It had found twenty-first century Earth.

Part of the Doctor wanted to search the databanks for other possible planets, but the list was long, and the time period not perfectly accurate. He wanted to give the Nestene a chance, but was prepared for the possibility that it would choose not to bother relocating when or if it discovered who he was and where he was from.

The Doctor pulled on his curls before turning his face up toward the column of the console, eyes still closed.

He wanted to find Gallifrey, to feel the brush of other Time Lords against his mind just so he knew he wasn't truly alone. But the damage they had done, and nearly all of them thought nothing of the supposed lesser races, was adding up to be inconceivable. How many other races or beings aside from the Nestene had been forced to invade other planets and people? How many points in time were now in danger of being altered because technology that should have never left Gallifrey had fallen into the hands of the innocents that wanted nothing to do with the Time Lord and Dalek feud?

He would find Gallifrey, one day. But for now, there was a mess to clean up.

He was the Doctor, after all. He fixed things.

"Alright, Ol' Girl," He said, stroking the edge of the console. "Do you think you can bring up a list?"

The TARDIS hummed her confirmation, and the information on the monitor flickered and changed until a list of circles and lines began to appear.

"Why Earth at so many points in time?" He grumbled as he read through. "At least other planets have had the misfortune of being viewed as perfect. Would hate for Rose to truly believe there was nothing more out there. You can't tell what the species or affects are? Just that they're there?" The Doctor asked the TARDIS, and she gave a sort of grumble.

He chuckled fondly.

"I understand that you aren't as modern as some of the other TARDISes, it's why I love you so. I understand that just finding the temporal and geographical points are difficult enough without the Matrix. Forgive my wanting such exacting details." He felt her appreciation, and nodded.

He looked around his console room, realizing not for the first time how much it had changed.

"If she needs me, make sure her door opens into the library. I believe a cup of tea and a book is in order before we go tracking down whatever lost souls need help next."

The TARDIS hummed again, perhaps in agreement or merely in acknowledgment. It was one of the few times he actually didn't get a sense of what she meant by it.

She did, however, move the library closer to the console room. Before he entered, the Doctor glanced over his shoulder to see Rose's bedroom door right across from it. He knew it was hers not just for her name in Gallifreyan etched in gold on the door, but for the rose above it. He smirked before entering the library.

"You really like her, don't you?" He asked the ceiling as he stroked the door frame.

The TARDIS didn't dignify him with a response.

* * *

 

He was making breakfast when she found him the next morning. He'd made sure the TARDIS was constantly moving her door so she was never far from wherever he ended up. After a few hours in the library, the Doctor had tinkered a bit in the new console room.

He tried again, knowing it would be in vain, to search for other signs of Gallifreyan tech across the Universe. He'd found none, allowing the loneliness to wash over him before reminding himself that it wasn't permanent. Once he had all the mess from the war sorted out, he could work on bringing Gallifrey and the Time Lords back. He was sure by then that he and Rose would part ways. She to her life in London, though hopefully not the _same_ life, and he to what ever fate awaited him when he found his people.

He'd spent at least an hour contemplating that possibility before deciding to get breakfast on. He could be heralded a hero, or forced to regenerate for his actions. But since they tried in an underhanded way to force a regeneration without his doing something awful, maybe they'd get more creative? He could see Rassilon wanting to do something terribly inhumane to him for taking away perceived glory. Or maybe the whole lot of them would come to their senses and realized what horrible things they'd done.

It wasn't likely.

So he focused on food. Eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns, beans, anything he thought she might want to eat, he attempted to make. He didn't do too bad, all things considered.

"Smells lovely," Rose said as she walked into the room, freshly showered but in the same clothes from the day before. "Didn't see the kitchen on the tour."

"Galley, actually, since we are on a ship." He said with a smile, getting a plate and handing it to her. "By all means, dig in. There's plenty to go around." He said, stepping back and watching her to see if he could pick up on her preferences. She grinned shyly, studying everything, taking small samples with a fork before scooping it on her plate. "What is it? Don't trust that I can cook?" He teased.

She grinned at him, her cheeks turning a deep pink. "'S not that. Just, I dunno, surprise you eat normal food. Well, not normal food. I mean it's normal food, just …."

"Not alien, is that it?" He asked, arching a brow. "I will have you know, Rose, that I eat like you do. Or should I say, you eat like me? Time Lords did come first, after all, and I imagine my more advanced pallet will put me a league above you."

"You mean 'cause you've had alien food?" She said as she finished loading up her plate and bringing it to the small table.

"Well, technically, your food is alien to me. But I have sampled delicacies from all over the Universe, and eventually you will, too." He said as he served himself.

"Yeah, well, I'll try anything you make. These eggs are gorgeous. Best ones I've ever had, really."

"I also make a mean chocolate martini, though I don't recommend having one with your toast." He commented before making himself a cup of tea from the pot he'd placed on the table earlier. "I know it's not exciting, but I thought your first trip could be a simple one. Back to the past on your own planet. You won't be too overwhelmed by the alieness of change, yet it's not hunting down plastic men in your neighborhood."

When she didn't reply he looked up, seeing her stare at him with a flabbergasted expression but excitement glittering in her eyes. "The past?"

"Yes. The eighteen hundreds, to be more precise." He said, noting how she frowned and glanced down at her clothes. "There's a wardrobe. The TARDIS will show you where it is, and she'll likely even help you find something era appropriate. I would hate to see you cause a riot because you're dressed like a man yet showing too much skin."

"I suppose you'd fit right in." She countered, though not unkindly.

"I would." He acknowledged. "Admittedly, probably better in the clothes I used to wear, but I am much more comfortable in this. And I have been known to change to fit the culture where needed."

Rose hummed and nodded, her mouth twisting in amusement that the Doctor figured likely came from her disbelief.

They finished their meal in silence, then parted ways in the corridor. As Rose went off to change, he set the coordinates and sent the TARDIS on her way. Rose had been there for the take off, and he wasn't quite ready for her to see that he wasn't entirely sure where all the buttons and knobs were on the knew console yet. The landed smoothly enough, though he glanced at the corridor for fear he'd hear her yelp or curse or both. When none came, he relaxed, looking at their location.

So they were on the tail end of the 1860s instead of the beginning he shot for. And while he'd hoped for the romantic scenery of Naples, they'd landed in Cardiff. Still, he hadn't been that far off of the year, and it happened to be Christmas eve, so that was bound to mean something. Humans, and himself he could admit, really did love the winter holiday.

The sound of shoes clicking on the floor alerted him to Rose's approach, but he didn't look up until she cleared her throat.

"This alright?" She asked shyly, licking then sucking in her lips as he looked her over.

She was exquisite. He had traveled with many woman, all beautiful in their own way. Some were even attractive by his standards, but it had been a long, long time since he felt his hearts flutter at the sight of a companion standing before him in anything. Charley was the last, and it seemed like so much time had passed with her. But Rose, she was something else.

While acting or maybe even being shy, Rose had a confidence in that dress that she hadn't in her denim and sweats. The corset set off her feminine assets by the dress itself was modest in a very complimentary plum. Her shoulders were bare beneath the cloak on her shoulders, signifying the dress not being perfectly accurate to the time period, but it could be passed off as the new French style should anyone ask. She'd pulled her hair back in loose, intricate knots that showed her slender neck in all its glory. The earrings she'd replaced her large rings for drew attention back to it should the eye try to wander to her face.

"You look beautiful." He said after what felt like too much time had passed. "Exquisite, if I were to be completely honest."

She giggled softly, a blush rising to her cheeks. She lifted the little hat in her hand to try and hide behind it, but her eyes kept darting over the brim as if she awaited for him to add something less complimentary.

He extended his hand toward her instead.

Rose took it gingerly, seeming wary of him.

The Doctor's smile faltered at the first real sign of mistrust between them. She'd excepted his story of the Autons with ease, hadn't blinked when he revealed his alien nature to her. But a compliment without an added fault seemed to through her off.

She didn't hold on to him for long, stepping past him and heading toward the door.

"'S alright if I go out first?" She asked, gesturing to the exit. "Mean, you've done this before."

"Absolutely. Please, go ahead." He said, forcing himself to smile in spite of the strange shift.

The Rose he'd expected came back in full force, her tongue between her teeth as she smiled before darting for the door and opening it, stepping outside.

So kindness made her wary, or at least kindness in compliments? His mind immediately went to the bumbling fool, Mickey. He recalled how he constantly clung to her, how he begged her not to go. He remembered the hint of waver in Rose as she debated joining him.

He doubted, though could not rule out, Mickey being the reason for her reticence. There was something else there, something much worse to make a woman as lovely as Rose retreat a bit into herself at a compliment.

It would have to wait until later to solve. For now, there was an unknown problem of a different kind lurking about, waiting to be put right.


	5. The Unquiet Dead pt 1

As Rose’s foot dipped into the snow, she giggled. Rose Tyler, chav from the estates, the nothing, the no one, had just put her foot into freshly fallen snow more than a hundred years before she was born. She looked at it in awe before stepping outside the TARDIS and looked around. She’d been to Cardiff a couple of times, and while it was unmistakably a different era, the roots for the Cardiff of her time already in place.

Rose could hear the Doctor coming out behind her as she looked around at the people dressed in their finery. Smiling so wide her face hurt, Rose admired the men in tailed coats and top hats, the women in gorgeous gowns and little hats. What’s more, she heard the shouts of ‘Happy Christmas’ being exchanged with head nods and small waves.

“It’s Christmas,” She said as the Doctor came up beside her.

“It is. Didn’t I mention that?”

“No.” She turned to him and shook her head. “It’s amazing.” He grinned, and warm and sincere, his eyes sparkling with mirth at her reaction. “I mean, just think about it. Christmas, 1860s.”

“1869.”

“Christmas, 1869. Happens once, just once, and it’s gone. It’s finished. It’ll never happen again. Except for you.”

“True.” The Doctor replied. “I’ve been to more historical events in Earth’s history than you can imagine, sometimes more than once.”

“But this isn’t a historical event, is it? Just a day, a simple day. Christmas day, 1869. ‘S a hundred years before my mum was born. ‘S even before my grandparents, and here we are, standing in the street on a day long gone. You can go back and see days that are a hundred thousand sunsets ago.”

“And so long as you travel with me, so can you.” He said as he offered him her arm. “Now, are you ready to see what December 24th, 1869 has to offer?”

“I believe I am.” Rose replied, looping her arm through his and clinging tight.

A small voice in the back of her mind was warning her to keep a bit of distance, to not get so attached. It reminded her that this was not the first time she up and left the life she knew, boring as it was, for a man.

 _But_ , she reasoned with herself, _I’m not childish enough to believe myself in love with him. This isn’t me running off with some bloke to prove we’re meant to be. It’s just traveling. It’s …._

So what if he called her beautiful? Rose wasn’t stupid, she knew boys and men looked at her because she had something appealing. Beautiful had been a new term, but was it really any different from being called fit? Her Mum had mention a time or two before she ran off with Jimmy that a pretty face like hers likely meant she didn’t _need_ to get her A-levels. She was going to get them to prove something to her Mum, but then she went with Keisha and Shareen to an open mic and fell in love with an image. Well, perhaps not love, but definitely into foolishness.

Jimmy had done a lot of things, but he never called her beautiful. And it was that thought that finally shut up the voices in her head.

They walked through the streets with her hand on his arm, and Rose took it all in. She was looking at the scenes from old Christmas cards, except she was breathing the flake filled air, could smell the oil burning in the lamp posts, the heat of the flame within warming the metal and adding the evergreens to the scents surrounding her. The air was chill, though her cloak kept the worst of it off.

She paused when the Doctor did, watching him pay the paper boy a bit too much as he collected the evening addition of the news. He held it as best he could while Rose continued to have her hand placed on his elbow.

“Oh, what’s this?” He said, stopping once more a little further down the road.

“What?” Rose asked, peering over at the paper.

The Doctor shifted it toward her, allowing her a better view, though she still didn’t know what he was looking at.

“Charles Dickens is doing a reading tonight at the theatre just around the corner. We’re in for a treat, Rose.” He smiled brightly as he folded the paper and tucked it under his arm.

She smiled back, allowing him to tug her along at a slightly quicker pace before what he said finally clicked.

“Wait, Charles Dickens? Like, _Christmas Carol_ , and _Oliver Twist_ , that Charles Dickens? _The_ Charles Dickens?”

“One in the same,” The Doctor replied, leading them around the corner and toward the theater. “1869, Rose.”

His enthusiasm was catching, even if the disbelief at the possibility of seeing such a famous soul was already making Rose giddy with anticipation. She’d thought of those old, worn paperbacks on the bookshelf in the flat that her mother refused to toss out. The few Dickens’ classics that were once her fathers before that awful accident. Rose had read them a couple times before Jimmy came along and convinced her that smarts wouldn’t actually get her far. He’d pointed out what it had done for the great Pete Tyler after all.

And now she was going to hear the great man read a story of his aloud, because she was in the past when he was still alive, and the whole thing was just a bit much but incredible all the same.

They headed toward the mass of people filing in, and Rose glanced about taking in the sights of past Cardiff while waiting to get in. Down the road, half in the shadows, stood a man with dark hair that seemed to be looking right at her. She could feel his eyes on her, knew for certain that he was making eye contact despite the distance, and the hairs on Rose’s arms began to stand on end. He smiled, one side lifting higher than the other, looking cocky, self assured, and a bit dirty despite how he dressed like a gentleman.

She turned her head sharply away, seeing they were closer than she had expected. Rose took a chance, glancing back at where the man was, and noticed he was gone.

It wasn’t possible. He couldn’t have actually looked at her because she wasn’t from this era. He must have been looking at someone else at first. Maybe what she thought was eye contact actually wasn’t.

Shaking her head, she let it go.

“Hello,” The Doctor said to the usher at the door as he withdrew something from his pocket. “My lady and I have balcony seats. Which way do we…?”

The usher took the black, leather billfold, brought it close to his eyes, and then nodded and handed it back. “The balcony you’re looking for is to the right, second level. Be the one dead center.”

“Thank you,” The Doctor said as he tucked the black billfold back in his pocket.

Rose peered over his shoulder, making sure the usher was adequately distracted and a few feet away before she asked, “What was that? How did you get us in?”

The Doctor smirked. “Psychic paper. What ever I want people to see shows up on it. And, well, you tell someone it’s a ticket to the show, they’re going to assume that’s what it is. That’s what they see. It’s quite simple.”

“’S a bit like stealing, though. I mean, what if there was already someone in the balcony?”

“Well that’s for the box office to deal with, isn’t it?” The Doctor replied mischievously. “Because obviously someone would have sold the balcony twice.”

Rose shook her head, doing her best to repress the threatening grin as he brought her to their seats. He waited until she was seated before coming around and taking the one to her right.

They had an excellent view of the stage, as well as the crowed below, and it warmed Rose’s heart to see so many people showed up despite the times. She couldn’t imagine a lot of people could spare the cost of the ticket in the day and age, though they all looked a little well to do. She knew her Mum would be going on about airs and graces right about now, not understanding what all the fuss was about. She could hear her in her mind going on about just catching it on the telly, and did they really need to hear someone read the whole bloody book?

Well, she would put on all kinds of airs and graces if it meant getting to experience something no one from her time ever would.

Not long after they were seat, the curtains on the stage below opened up, and out walked the man himself. Rose tried to remember exactly what those old sketches of him on the back of her father’s paperbacks looked like, but seeing Charles Dickens in the flesh replaced any possible imagery she’d seen before.

He smiled, bowed, thanked the crowd, cleared his throat, and began. “Marley was dead: to begin with.  There is no doubt whatever about that.  The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner.  Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to.  Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.”

Rose was lost to the timber of Charles Dickens’ voice, much deeper and more powerful than she would have imagined. The room was silent except for him, the room enraptured as the great author retold his tale for the room.

Rose couldn’t tell for certain how much time had actually gone by when she peeked up at the Doctor to see if he was as taken by the event as she was. He had, after all, been doing this for a while. At least, that’s what she presumed.

He was focused on something other than Mister Dickens. His brow furrowed as he frowned, the Doctor’s eyes were focused on something in the audience. Confused, Rose followed his gaze, then scanned the audience a few times before she spotted it.

A blue, ethereal glow surrounding a little old lady.

“Oh, my lord! It looked … like that!” Mister Dickens decreed, and the crowd turned to older woman as she stood up. She opened her mouth, and a terrifying screech filled the room and had people rushing to escape. Chaos erupted.

Rose stood, about to do the same when the Doctor’s arm caught her around the waist.

“Wait.” He said, and Rose looked over her shoulder to see him looking for something. “This way, we need to get down there. What ever that was, it’s not of Earth.” The Doctor let go of Rose’s waist and took her hand, pulling her the opposite direction from where they entered.

“Whaddya mean, not of Earth? That was alien?”

“Yes,” The Doctor replied without hesitation.

“Ghosts are aliens?” Rose replied.

“There are no such things as ghosts, Rose. It’s alien, a gaseous being, but I don’t know the species, and I won’t until we get a closer look.” He said as he pulled her toward a door. Fully expecting him to withdraw the sonic screwdriver, it surprised Rose when the Doctor let go of her hand, stepped forward, and gave the door a hard, swift kick.

He grabbed her hand, and they descended the stairs.

“Why didn’t you use your screwdriver?” Rose managed to ask.

“Wood door. The Sonic doesn’t do wood.” The Doctor replied

“Seriously?” Rose asked as they emerged to a backstage area.

Charles was silhouetted against the light, and in the air above the seating area zoomed balls of light that Rose would have assumed to be specters. They looked so like the spots of light in pictures people would swear were ghosts, reminded her of the renditions of such sights in films.

Most of the theater was cleared out, making it painfully obvious when a pudgy, bald man with a young maid made their way against the remaining crowd toward to old woman who was now slumped in her chair.

“Mister Dickens, I ask you stay here and don’t move.” The Doctor said, his attention seeming too focused on the balls of light above to notice.

Rose picked up the skirts of her dress and bolted, knowing without a doubt that the old woman was likely key to whatever was happening.

The pair, unfortunately, were a bit faster than she was. Carrying the old woman out as if she were nothing more than a bit of lumber, the old man and the maid were to the door before Rose could get to the row the old lady had been in.

“Doctor, they’re getting away,” Rose called over her shoulder, glimpsing he and Mister Dickens looking at her stunned.

She didn’t wait for them. Charging after them, Rose saw the maid at the back of a carriage, looking around shiftily. The old man had just went around to the front as Rose ran toward them.

“What are you doing?” She shouted at them, dropping her skirts so she could check the condition of the old woman, offer her comfort if need be.

“Oh, it’s such a tragedy, miss.” The maid started saying as Rose’s palm touched the old woman’s cold forehead.  “Don’t worry yourself. Me and the master will deal with it. The fact is, this poor lady’s been taken with the brain fever and we have to get her to the infirmary.

Cold as if nothing warm had ever been beneath the skin. She remembered when her grandfather passed, touching his face at the wake, and it felt exactly like that. As the maid continued, Rose took in the old woman’s bluish complexion.

“She’d dead!” Rose turned to the maid. “My God, what did you do to ….”

A arm clamped around her, fingers clawing a bit roughly at her breast for a moment before a sweet smelling cloth was clamped over her mouth and nose. Rose struggled, kicked, looked about for some sign of hope that she wasn’t about to join the old woman in what had to be a hearse.

As the block spots clouded the edge of her vision, Rose caught sight of the Doctor running toward her, and Charles Dickens right behind him.

Then things went blissfully black.

 

* * *

 

 

“Who are getting away?” Charles Dickens asked the Doctor as Rose ran out after a pair carrying the original host for whatever was in the air above them. “Is it the wag who would do such a thing?”

“Just the ones who allowed such a thing to happen, to get this far.” The Doctor replied, watching as the balls of vapor disappeared into the lanterns. “Not just gaseous but feed off gas. Need it to survive. Interesting.” He said to himself before hopping off the stage and charging out after Rose.

He glanced up and down the street before a muffled cry across the way caught his attention. It took a moment for the Doctor to register that what he was seeing was Rose being attacked from behind by the man who carried out the old woman. He maid was standing at the back of the hearse carriage with them, half trying to conceal the body of the old woman.

The Doctor rushed toward them just as Rose went limp in the old man’s arms.

“Attacking women in the Cardiff streets?” The Doctor said harshly, causing the skeevy creature holding his companion to startle and nearly drop her. “I would say it isn’t good for business, but I think the way you mishandle the dearly departed is cause enough for people to want to run you out of town.

“It’s not what it looks like.” The flustered man tried to say. “Honestly, she was just so … distraught over the sudden passing of her grandmother. I tried to comfort her, off her a handkerchief, but she fainted.”

“So you really think I would believe that?” The Doctor retorted. “Rose is with me, she was at the theater with me, and I can assure you with absolute certainty that that elderly woman is in no way her grandmother.” The Doctor stepped forward, scooping Rose’s legs up in one arm while wrapping his other around her just beneath where the fool was holding her up by the arm pits.

The man jumped back, letting go of Rose and appearing to debate whether it would be wise to run.

“And you, sir. I need you to explain yourself! What do you know about the hobgoblin? Projection on glass, I suppose? Who put you up to it?”

The Doctor had been so focused on getting to Rose he hadn’t realized that Charles had followed him outside. But seeing the furious indignation on the author’s face tipped the Doctor to the possibility of an ally.

The old man flustered about with his hands, stumbling over words.

“Please, Mister Sneed. He can help. He has a way about him. He can help the spirits if we let him.” The maid said to her boss.

That stopped Sneed from his spastic attempts at protests. He looked to the Doctor sheepishly. “You can help us, sir? It’s been right terrible for business, it has.”

“I think you’ve been spending too much time with the dead, seeing as how you’ve seemed to have lost a chunk of your humanity and decency.  Worried about business, yet you would drug a young woman. I will help, but not you.” The Doctor then turned to the maid. “Yes, I will be able to help the spirits, as you call them. From the way you talk, I would say they must linger at the house?”

“Yes, sir.” The maid nodded. “There’s always been a little something about the house, but it’s been more than that as of late. They seem to affect ….”

“Not here, girl.” Sneed snapped. The maid silenced immediately and bowed her head, clasping her hands in front of her.

“Shall we take this conversation somewhere more comfortable then, Mister Sneed?” The Doctor snapped, sneering a bit on the man’s name. “How about your lovely home. Go on, extend the invitation, allow me to have a look.  Otherwise, I may have to resort to going to the local law enforcement. Mister Dickens here is witness to the attack you made on Rose, not to mention the charges he could probably press against you for the chaos in the theater tonight. I wonder how much business you would lose then?”

Sneed blustered about, glancing between the Doctor and Dickens before huffing. “Fine. But I’ve got no room for all of you in my carriage, unless you want to ride in the back with the stiff.”

Dickens snorted and the Doctor scowled.

“You, Doctor, may bring your lady friend with you to my carriage.” Charles said, indicating his own vehicle only a few feet down. “We can follow this, this man, to his residence.”

The Doctor nodded, turning and following Charles to the carriage.

The driver opened the door upon their arrival, and Charles waved the Doctor in first. As he settled in his seat with Rose in his lap, the Doctor looked over the skin he could see. There was the very faint impressions of Sneed’s fingers where he pressed into Rose’s cheeks, keeping the gag to her mouth. He leaned in, sniffing her skin, picking up on the sweet notes of chloroform around her mouth and nose. There didn’t seem to be anything on her arms that hinted at further inflictions.

“Had the nave handled my wife in such a manner, Doctor, I do not believe I would have been quite so lenient.” Charles said as the carriage started to move.

“She’s not my wife.” The Doctor replied, adjusting Rose so her head rested against her shoulder. The scent of her hair caught him off guard. He was used to companions from her time smelling of artificial fragrances, but Rose had lacked it. There was a whiff of something subtly sweet, like tea with sugar or French macaroons. There was a hint of flower, delicate like lilacs but without the overpowering aspect they tended to have. Arkytiors, it was a hint of Arkytior. And of course, pheromones. He’d picked up on the pheromones of all the female companions he’d taken aboard, but never had they been actually appealing. Something about them enhanced that delicate perfume that was Rose natural scent.

Entranced as he was, he nearly missed the somewhat smug smirk that came over Charles.

“Not yet, perhaps?” Dickens said.

The Doctor said nothing. How could he explain that he was friends with a nineteen year old girl while visiting 1869, a time when Rose would never have been out alone with him without a chaperon. And whatever Charles saw that drew such assumptions would hardly allow for him to pass her off as a sister or niece.

Instead, he chose to remain silent. Cradling Rose against him, the Doctor looked out the window, watching the town pass by as they headed to the undertaker’s home.

As they started to slow, Rose moaned, stirring slightly against him. She nuzzled at his waist coat before opening her eyes and squinting at her surroundings.

“Wha?”

“How are you feeling, Rose?” The Doctor asked soothingly, stroking her arm with his hands.

“’M alright.” Rose replied turning and spotting Charles on the other side of the carriage. She seemed to stare at him for a moment before she turned to the Doctor. “We’re in a coach thing with Charles Dickens.” She stated with some disbelief.

The Doctor chuckled. “Yes, we are.”

Rose looked down. “I’m in your lap.”

“Yes, you are.” The Doctor replied.

Rose’s cheeks colored as she slid off his lap, murmuring, “bit forward seeming, that.”

“He was there, Rose. He saw what that man did to you.” The Doctor assured.

“Right.” She said, putting a hand to her forehead and rubbing at her brow. “What happened, then?”

“We’re going to visit Mister Sneed and find out what problems plague the deplorable man for him to believe it is respectable to use a corpse in a parlor trick.” Charles replied, his disgust clear in his tone and sneer.

Rose stiffened, her eyes darkening a bit as her brow furrowed. “Right.” She said, clearing her throat. “Might have a few words I’d want to say to him myself.”

The Doctor chuckled quietly to himself, admiring the fire burning in his companion.

The carriage slowed, and continued on at a calmer pace for a few minutes before it picked up speed for a short while and came to a complete stop.

The driver opened the door, and Charles stepped out first before the Doctor slid out and then helped Rose to the ground. They glanced around, spotting the home of the undertaker on the other side of the carriage, and made their way to the door as a group.

The lights flickered strangely through the windows, giving the Doctor pause before he escorted Rose by the arm up the stairs and knocked on the door. When no one answered, he tried again. The light through the window flickered and flared again.

“That’s not right.” The Doctor said, placing a hand on the door knock and turning it. The door opened, and he cautiously stepped over the threshold first.

There was a strange feeling in the room, not quiet like telepathy, but more the essence of minds. Squinting about in the strange lighting, the Doctor looked around, trying to see where the feeling might have been stemming from. When it didn’t seem forthcoming by sight, he strained to listen. His sense of hearing lead him to the walls, and he pressed his ear against it, giving it all his focus. “There’s something in the gas pipes.” He said.

“What, like a snake? No, can’t be right. Nothing’d be able to live in it.” Rose thought out loud.

The Doctor gave her a smirk. “No, no carbon based life form would. A gaseous life form, however ….”

He was cut off by Mister Sneed’s sharply spoken, “Stay back, girl, for God’s sake,” coming from down the hall.

The Doctor took off, vaguely aware of Rose and Charles following close behind him. He turned the corner, and found the old lady once more reanimated, and this time with a younger man who bore vague familial resemblance, even in death. Or perhaps, maybe death enhanced it.

Mister Sneed and his maid quickly moved behind the Doctor, and while the Time Lord could understand the latter, it only cemented the former as a coward in his mind.

“They just started moaning not long after we put the old lady back in her coffin. We came down to lock ‘em in but they were already to the door.” Sneed explained, and the Doctor’s lip curled a bit involuntarily.

He then realized that after they arrived, the two corpses ceased their pursuit and were looking to him expectantly.

“It’s a prank.” Charles said as the Doctor tried to assess what they were expecting from him. “It must be, we’re under some mesmeric influence.”

“I’m afraid we aren’t, Charles.” The Doctor replied, taking a tiny step closer to the two corpses. “My name’s the Doctor, and I’m here to help in anyway I can. Who are you, what do you need?”

“We’re failing.” A voice came from the young man’s mouth that didn’t fit. It was young, perhaps even feminine, and ethereal. “Open the rift, we’re dying. Trapped in this form, cannot sustain, help us.”

Before the Doctor could ask anymore of the voice, the corpses tilted their head toward the ceiling, their mouths open. A blue, misty glow erupted from each open mouth, accompanied by a wail, and then the corpses fell to the floor.

The Doctor looked at the bodies, trying to go through the endless catalogue of gaseous species in his mind and figure out who they could have encountered.

“Need our help, don’t they?” Rose asked quietly as she came up beside him. “You said we were going to help right wrongs from your time war. This one of them?”

“I don’t know, but it’s likely.” The Doctor stated, turning toward her. “I think we need to speak to Mister Sneed and his maid in order to find out more.”

“Yeah,” Rose said, turning her fierce gaze at the small, sniveling man. “Got a few words I wanna say to him myself.”


	6. The Unquiet Dead pt 2

There were many men Rose had wanted to stand up to in her life that she hadn’t. She could count about five of her mum’s boyfriends off the top of her head that needed a good tongue lashing and probable a smack. There was Jimmy, of course. There would always be Jimmy, but there was also Darren Pye who made Jimmy look like a saint by comparison.

And it wasn’t that Rose didn’t have a back bone, or that she was unable to stand up for herself, but she had been a bit cowed by the abusive ass she ran away with. Much as she hated to admit it, it was being back on the estates, surrounded by the very people Jimmy tried to keep her from, that gave her back her confidence. She also suspected, from the way he was letting her have a go at the tiny man in the seat before her, that the Doctor would encourage this side of her as well. His small smirk was a sure sign he at least found it amusing.

“You’re a right sorry git, you are. First, you drug me, and don’t think I didn’t feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man. Trying to hold me down before the Doctor go there and stopped you. ‘Bout to kidnap me, weren’t ya?”

“I will not be spoken to like this!” Sneed tried to interrupt, glancing at the Doctor as if he would get help.

“I’ll talk to ya how I like, you despicable lil’ man. Got the feeling you would have locked me up in the room with those zombies and hoped they’d off me before anyone came looking. What would you have said happened to me, eh? Some sad, tragic accident? Well, go on. Talk!”

Sneed looked flustered, pouty, like he was a small child being accused of pushing a kid on the playground instead of a full grown man who groped and then attempted to kill a woman. At least, that’s how Rose saw it. She probably wasn’t all that far off from the truth, either.

“It’s not my fault,” Sneed blustered, and Rose crossed her arms and arched a brow. “It’s the house!” Sneed gestured about. “It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back, and then the stiffs…”

At this, Charles Dickens sneered and huffed in distaste, shaking his head slightly at the little man.

Sneed’s cheeks colored. “I mean, the dear departed. They started getting restless.”

“Tommyrot.” Dickens countered, mimicking Rose’s stance as he leaned on the opposite side of the mantel over the fireplace from the Doctor.

“You witnessed it.” Sneed countered. “Can’t keep the beggars down, sir. They walk, and it’s the queerest thing that they hang on to scraps of what they would have done in life. One old fella who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service! Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir! Just as she planned. Her grandson, the poor boy in with her now, said she was going on about it for a time.”

“Morbid fancy.” Dickens retorted, shaking his head.

Rose narrowed her eyes in thought as the Doctor said, “Oh Charles, you saw for yourself that she was there.”

“I saw nothing but an illusion.” Dickens countered, shifting so he could turn to the Doctor.

“What about the grandson?” Rose asked. “Why hasn’t he gone mucking about in the streets?”

“Not sure.” Sneed replied with a shrug. “He was quite attached to the old lady. Perhaps he doesn’t have anywhere else he wants to be.”

“What about the gas?” The Doctor asked, gesturing to the lights before draining his tea cup and setting it aside. It was then that Rose realized that the maid, Gwyneth, had placed a cup on the side table for her.

Rose sat in the chair, taking a sip of the perfectly made cup as she looked between the Doctor and Sneed.

“How long have the gas lights been affect?” The Doctor continued.

“That’s new, sir. Never seen anything like that.” Sneed replied.

The Doctor’s brow wrinkled, and his eyes shifted to the floor. “That means the rift here is getting stronger, wider. It’s big enough that something’s been sneaking through.”

“What’s the rift?” Rose asked, turning and meeting the Doctor’s eye.

“A weak point in time and space. I imagine it’s the after affects of a temporal weapon as I don’t ever recall their being one here before. And unfortunately for Mister Sneed, it opened under his house. But it takes time for it to grow to the size it’s like at now, which means it’s actual start point was at least a decade or two back. Possibly longer. Which would explain why they said the place was haunted. When rifts happen, it’s usually the cause of ghost stories.”

“That’s how I got the house so cheap!” Sneed said eagerly. “Stories going back generations. Echos in the dark, queer songs in the air and the feeling like a shadow passing over your soul.” He paused, looking thoughtful if not a bit guilty for the first time all evening. “Mind you, truth be told, it’s been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine.”

“Well, least you found a bright side.” Rose sighed.

Sneed gave a quirk of the lips. “I am sorry about what I did to you, Miss. I was raised as a proper gentleman.” Rose took a sip of her tea and tried to get a read on the man. She noted the Doctor leaving the room, and that Mister Dickens wasn’t there any longer either. Gwyneth seemed to be lingering near the tea service a bit longer than what was likely necessary.

Rose returned her gaze to an earnest seeming Mister Sneed, and she leaned forward while holding his eye. “Keep your hands to yourself otherwise, I trust?” Rose asked. “Not taking advantage of those in your service or anything?”

Sneed seemed to pale, and he quickly shook his head. “No, Miss.”

“Best not be,” Rose said as she leaned back, catching Gwyneth leaving the sitting area with the tea service. “Pardon me, Mister Sneed, but you understand if I don’t stick around, what with the Doctor and Mister Dickens gone.” She said as she got to her feet.

Sneed glanced around, only just realizing they were alone. “No, that wouldn’t be proper.” He agreed, bowing his head as Rose went around to where Gwyneth disappeared. She wasn’t sure where the Doctor went off to, and if she were honest with herself, she probably wouldn’t want to be there anyway. Standing up to a little man who thought himself better than he was was one thing. She’d practiced similar confrontations with Jimmy in her mind frequently since she left him over a year ago. But she wasn’t so sure she wanted to look at a pair of corpses who had murder in their dead eyes not an hour ago.

And besides, there couldn’t really be a such thing as zombies, she’d have known from history classes and the like. No, it was alien. And for now, she was happy leaving that to the alien she arrived with.

 

* * *

 

 

As Rose spoke to Sneed, the Doctor noticed Charles slipping out of the room and down the hall to where they’d laid the bodies to rest once more. Without a word, he slipped from the room and followed the skeptical author.

He could understand the whole seeing is believing concept the humans typically had, especially in this era when science was becoming boss and superstition was falling to the wayside. But he doubted Dickens would have remained so if he’d paid attention the presentation of her skills that Gwyneth provided as they all stood or sat in the sitting room.

“Here’s your tea, sir. Splash of milk, just how you like it.” She had said as she handed him the tea cup. And it was exactly how he liked it. He watched Dickens, and then Rose, to see if either of them would turn their nose at the cup presented to them or note that she somehow knew without asking. Neither did, though he could understand Rose not having really noted it. Charles, though. Charles should have noticed as it was highly unlikely that Gwyn would know how the man took his tea.

He found the wordsmith patting the sides and interior of the coffin of the young man. He watched the puzzled Charles for a a few more moments before asking, “Are you checking for strings?”

Charles glanced over at him. “Wires, perhaps? There must be some mechanism behind this fraud.”

“Why are you so convinced it’s a fraud?” The Doctor asked as he went to stand at Charles’ side. He put a hand on the author’s shoulder. “You are Charles Dickens. You have one of the best minds in the world. You created Bob Marley, the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. You saw the beings of gas escape from the bodies before they collapsed.”

“I cannot accept that.” Charles countered.

“But how can’t you? You know that when a body breaks down it produces gas. And the beings are gaseous, yes? So what better way for them to move about in a corporal form? It’s a bit disturbing, of course, and I think I know how to communicate with them to find out what they want or need, but even you have to admit that what you see if the truth. There are no tricks here.”

Charles looked like he wanted to argue but then thought better of it.

“I’ve always railed against the fantasies.” Charles said, and the Doctor’s lips quirked a bit. “Oh, I loved an illusion as much as the next man, reveled in them. But that’s what they were, illusions. The real world is something else, and I dedicated myself to that. Injustices, social causes, I hoped that I was a force for good. Now you tell me that the real world is a realm of specters and jack o’ lanterns. In which case, have I wasted my brief span here, Doctor? Has it all been for nothing?”

“No,” The Doctor said firmly. “Every human life has value, and yours is, admittedly, much greater than some. For many people and in many cases, you’re are right in your perception of the world. They don’t see gaseous beings escaping from bodies like departed souls. The don’t see machines like pepper pots out to destroy their lives. They don’t see plastic people coming to life and attacking shoppers.” Charles furrowed his brow, and the Doctor shook his head, waving any questions away. “My point, Charles, is that you had every right to think the way you have. But now that you know the truth, you need to expand your way of thinking. Believe in what you thought was impossible.” He sighed. “And if you can’t do that entirely, then at least set aside your beliefs long enough to join us for what needs to be done here tonight.”

“And what needs to be done?” Charles asked, cautiously but curiously.

The Doctor grinned. “We’re going to communicate with them. But first, I need to find Gwyn.”

 

* * *

 

 

The Doctor made his way through Sneed’s home to the kitchens, catching the lilt of Rose’s voice paired with the heavy accent that Gwyn had.

“I don’t know, must’ve been the Doctor.” He caught Gwyneth say as he stopped just outside the doorway.

“Never told him. My Dad died years back, didn’t even know him, really. Just a baby when he passed.”

“But you’ve been thinking about him lately, more than ever.” Gwyneth said with certainty.

Rose nodded, twisting the dishcloth in her hands. She bit her lip, and he waited her out, curious what she would have to say about Gwyn’s gift. “How do you know all this, then?” Rose asked.

Gwyneth waved it off. “Mister Sneed says I think too much. I’m all alone down here. I bet you’ve got dozens of servants, haven’t you miss?”

Rose snorted in a very unlady-like way, but it didn’t seem uncouth. She added a bit of a chuckle on the end as she shook her head. “No, no servants where I’m from.”

Gwyn’s face had been light with mirth as Rose chuckles, but it become suddenly serious with a far away look to her eyes.  “And you’ve come such a long way.” She said, her voice not quite the same. She sounded partly monotone now. The Doctor stepped into the room, but neither woman noticed. “You’re from London. I’ve seen London in drawings, but never like that. All those people rushing about, half naked, for shame. And the noise … and the metal boxes racing past. And the birds in the sky, they’re metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People flying. And you, you’ve flown so far, further than the rest.  The things you will see, red planets and golden lights, the big, bad wolf ….” She stumbled back into the counter behind her, and Rose stood still, tense with fright. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry miss.” Gwyneth said as she seemed to catch her breath.

“S’alright.” Rose replied, taking a small step forward to the poor girl.

“I can’t help it,” Gwyn pleaded. “Ever since I was a little girl. My mum said I had the sight, she told me to hide it.”

“But you can’t, can you Gwyn?” The Doctor asked, causing both girls to startle. He headed toward them, placing a hand on Rose’s lower back as he spoke to Gwyneth. The maid shook her head as she caught his eye. “No. It’s how you knew how everyone took their tea, how Rose comes from the future. It wasn’t so bad as a young girl, but I suspect it’s gotten worse recently, hasn’t it?”

Gwyneth nodded. “Every night, sir, voices in my head.”

“I think I know why. It’s a possibility that you do have a slight psychic tendency, there are many humans who do have one, but I believe yours has been heightened by growing up on the rift.” He dropped his hand from Rose’s back and shifted slightly closer to Gwyneth. “I believe your awakened talent, paired with having been so closely linked to it. You’ve become a part of it.”

“I’ve tried to make sense of it,” Gwyneth said as she ducked her head. “Consulted with spiritualists, table wrappers, all sorts.”

He gently took on of her hands and held it in both of his. When she lifted her eyes to his, he offered a gentle smile. “There is no shame in that, Gwyn. I want you to know with absolute certainty that there is no shame in seeking out understanding anyway you can.”

“But they’re unholy, sir.” She said, a bit confused, and the Doctor chuckled.

He glanced over at Rose who watched them curiously, then turned back to Gwyneth. “Unholy, or not, you did what you thought you had to. And now, having been through the practices, you can lead us through one. You are a key to the rift, Gwyneth, and I fully believe you can connect us to your specters in order for us to speak to them, find out what they need.”

“Doctor?” Rose asked. “What are you on about?”

“Gwyneth is going to lead us in a seance.” He replied.

Rose stared at him blankly. “You mean like playing with an Ouija board?”

“A what, miss?” Gwyneth frowned. “Don’t think I’ve heard tell of what that is.”

“Because it won’t be around for another twenty years.” The Doctor said, turning back to Rose. “Seances are real, in some forms.” He paused, mouth opened and ready to say what he was on the tip of his tongue and then thought better of it. Turning to Gwyn once more, he gave her a grin. “Gwyneth, could you kindly prepare a space for us to have the seance? And get Mister Sneed and Mister Dickens in there as well?”

“Right away, sir.” She said with a curtsy. “I’ll ready the parlor, won’t be long.” She left them alone in the kitchen.

The Doctor took Rose’s hand and led her by the sink where Gwyn had been doing the washing up earlier. He glanced to the door, insuring Gwyneth wasn’t near, before he explained more to Rose. “Seances are real in that, in conditions like these, one can communicate with another being through the rift. They don’t allow communication for the deceased, like many believe, but it would feel like it. Many of the beings communicated with are either highly telepathic, or gaseous like the lot we’re dealing with now.”

“So you aren’t just pullin’ one over on her, then?” Rose asked.

“No,” The Doctor assured, squeezing her hand gently. “I promise, Rose, it’s not like that at all.”

“’Kay,” She nodded once. “Trust you on this. Gwyn’s a nice girl, and she’s been picked on enough in life, it seems, for this thing she’s got that she can’t even control.”

The Doctor watched as Rose grew more defensive and passionate over the way Gwyn was treated, and remembered what she was like giving ol’ Sneed a piece of her mind. She was ferocious, wild, stunning, and loyal seeming, much like … well, like a wolf.

A bad wolf? For some reason, those words sent a shiver down his spine that was as pleasant as it was disconcerting. There was an echo in his time sense that he couldn’t quite latch on to, just out of reach, that held the answer to it.

When he realized Rose was frowning at him, looking all the world ready to ask what was wrong, he shook it off and offered her a grin. “Come on,” he said, “Let’s go summon some gaseous beings.”

 

* * *

 

 

Rose was absolutely insistent that she not sit next to Mister Sneed, and she was eternally grateful when the Doctor coached Charles Dickens to sit on her right as she placed the Doctor on her left. Sneed had pouted as he placed himself next to Gwyneth, and Rose had wished she’d kept her cloak handy as she caught Sneed sneaking peeks at her chest. Honestly, was it any wonder she didn’t want the despicable man anywhere near her?

“This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists,” Gwyneth said as she settled at what oddly seemed like the head of a round table. She’d been lighting the candles as they rest of them had settled in, and now she placed her hands out to either side of her, palm up. “Come,” Gwyneth said. “We must all join hands.”

“I can’t take part in this!” Charles stood abruptly, his bluster not seeming as strong as he tried to project it.

“Charles, please, be reasonable.” The Doctor said calmly, a hint of tease in his smirk. “If this really is nonsense, then you can mock us all you’d like afterward. But, if by chance it is real, and we can communicate with those we seek out, then you will have a wealth of new experience.” The Doctor’s mouth stretched a little wider in amusement, but there was something sad in his eyes that Rose didn’t quite understand. “Just think of the inspiration such an even t could stir for your writing.”

That settled Charles, a resignation appearing in the warning glint of his eyes. He sat, followed the lead of Gwyneth, and offered a hand to Rose to hold.

She took it, offering the great author a bit of comfort in the form a slight squeeze. It caused a twitch of his lips, as if he understood that Rose was just as out of her element as he was out of his.

Aliens was a new concept as it was, and thought the Doctor explained how the seance actually worked, throwing away the skepticism was difficult.

His cool hand captured her free one over the table, and Rose turned her head sharply toward him at the contact. It was needed, expected, but still surprised her. It wasn’t that there was a shock of something to her system, a rush in her veins filled with adrenaline and set to release endorphins. It was that it felt incredibly and perfectly natural to be holding this alien man’s hand, their palms and fingers molding just so in their grip that it was like settling into memory foam and capturing that perfect fit.

She turned away from his reassuring smile, deciding then and there that she was a bit crazy. She had done it again, despite what she was trying to coax herself to believe otherwise. She’d ran away with a strange man, and was now imagining feelings and chemistry that wasn’t really there. She took a breath, looking to the table before looking to Gwyneth.

The knowing amusement in the young maid’s face didn’t do much to settle Rose, but Gwyneth sobered before anything could be dwelt on.

“Go ahead, Gwyneth, if you’re ready.” The Doctor said, tilting his head to the girl on his left.

Gwyneth nodded, then looked to the ceiling. “Speak to us. Are you there? Spirits? Come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden.”

There was a faint murmuring that Rose couldn’t place. She glanced about the table, only realizing a moment later that the tone was too soft and child like for it to have been any of the men at the table. She looked above her, inspecting the ceiling for something she was positive she’d see even if she didn’t know what it was she would witness.

“Can you hear that?” Rose asked the table before she noted the way Gwyn’s eyes were partly rolled back, and her skin paled significantly.

“Nothing can happen; this is sheer folly.” Charles assured.

“Look at her and say that.” Rose retorted, tilting her head toward Gwyneth.

“I feel them!” The maid exclaimed.

“What’re they saying?” Rose asked, unable to help herself. She looked about the room again and noticed the mist forming over their heads.

“They aren’t able to get through quite yet. Gwyn, you must reach deeper, seek them out. You can do it, I know you can. Your link with them is already so strong.”

Gwyneth’s face contorted in pain, her head dipping as the mist in the room swirled more thickly about them. Suddenly, it stopped, and Gwyneth’s head snapped up as her eyes appeared vacant. “Yes.” She said, her voice not quite her own.

The mist formed three figures behind her, and they looked so much like children that Rose could have easily believed that’s what they were had it not been for her experience with living shop dummies. After all, these beings were alien, and if little green men weren’t the norm as thought, then anything was possible.

“Great God,” Sneed bumbled. “Spirits from the other side!”

“More like the other side of the universe.” The Doctor countered.

“Pity us,” The three ethereal beings said. “Pity the Gelth, there is so little time, help us.”

“What do you need?” The Doctor asked.

“The rift. Take the girl to the rift, make the bridge.”

“Why?” The Doctor asked the beings. “Why do you need to come to this planet, this time?”

“We are so very few. The last of our kind, we face extinction.” They replied.

“I know a bit what that feels like.” The Doctor mumbled. “Alright, what happened to your people that have you facing extinction?” The Doctor asked.

“The war.”

“War? What war?” Rose had been so enraptured by the conversation between the Doctor and the Gelth that she had nearly forgotten there were others in the room before Charles spoke.

“The Time War.” The Gelth said, and Rose felt the grip the Doctor had on her hand tighten. “The whole Universe convulsed. The Time War raged invisible to smaller species, but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We’re trapped in this gaseous state.”

“That doesn’t really explain why you feel the need to invade this world.” The Doctor half ground out.

“We want to stand tall, to feel sunlight, to live again. We need physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They’re going to waste, give them to us.” The Gelth pleaded, and Rose shuddered at the imagery.

“We can’t.” She said.

“You can.” The Gelth countered. “Open the rift, let the Gelth through. We’re dying, help us! Pity the Gelth.”

They wailed, and Gwyneth collapsed forward on the table.

The Doctor let go of her hand and immediately went to her, pulling her off the table as he pulled out the sonic from his coat. He scanned her, or at least that’s what Rose assumed, and he looked at the tool in his hand before repocketing it. “She’s fine, just over exhausted. We should move her somewhere more comfortable.” He said, shifting to the side where he could pick her up in his arms and carry her somewhere.

“To the parlor, I think.” Sneed instructed as he stood up, waving the Doctor toward the nearest doorway.

“All true.” Charles said, pulling Rose back to the present. “It’s all true.”

“You alright?” She asked, tightening the grip he still had on her hand.

It seemed to snap him out of it, and Charles pulled his hand away as he gave her a flustered grin. “I’m sure I will be.” He assured, patting her arm and rising to his feet.

Rose did the same and followed him out of the room and down the hall to where the Doctor and Sneed had brought Gwyneth.

“What are you going to do, Doctor?” Rose asked as they entered the room.

The Doctor was leaning against the wall, seeming deep in thought as he looked into the flames of the fireplace. Gwyneth had been placed on the divan, Sneed sitting at the small table and sipping a cup of tea that Rose could tell had been heavily spiked with the brandy sitting nearby.

“I’m not sure.” The Doctor eventually replied, his eyes darting about as if comparing two things right in front of him. He tapped his lip a moment before rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I need to set right what the Time Lords did, that is without a doubt what needs to be done. But I’m not sure if this was something …. They were right. The Time War was invisible to smaller species, you lot for example.”

“Oi.” Rose snapped, and he grinned before looking at her.

“I don’t mean that in an offensive way, Rose, it’s the way it is. You are what they call a level five planet, just starting to develop. You’ve only been bipeds walking about for a few million years. You’re not even near the technological levels other, more advanced planets are a thousand years into your own future. You haven’t been affect by the war other than having its refugees trying to seek out your planet for its own nefarious purposes. I’m not sure what it is, exactly, about your planet that attracts them so much, but it is what it is.  But there isn’t anyway that the Time War was what actually destroyed their physical forms. The Gelth aren’t familiar to me, so for all I know they’ve never had a physical form and only just know what it’s like to have one after inhabiting the dead here in Mister Sneed’s mortuary.”

“But they spoke of feeling the sun. Oh standing tall.” Charles said as he moved to stand beside the Doctor.

The Doctor stood straighter, hands gesturing as he spoke. “Yes, but there are surface memories lingering in the brain post-mortem. Have to be, it was said before that they go about their lives or attend events that resonated with them in life. Your reading, for instance. So it’s possible that the Gelth got hints of what it felt like to feel the sun on skin, to have physical presence. Or, perhaps, there is enough connection with the body they inhabit to feel those things themselves. My point is, I’m at a moral dilemma. Do we allow them to inhabit the dead? Or do we let them die out, as they say they are.”

“If they lost their physical forms than they can’t….” Sneed trailed off, glancing at Rose and blushing. “There is a reason that they are dying.”

“If you’re thinking along the lines of reproduction, I’m afraid that’s where you’d be surprised to learn that not every species uses intercourse to carry on.”

That made Sneed’s cheeks deepen in color, and Rose couldn’t help but snicker for a moment before remembering the topic they had been discussing beforehand.

“Doctor, we can’t let them take over human bodies. ‘S wrong.”

“That’s the dilemma I face, Rose. Do I let them in, in habit a few of the more recently deceased until a solution is made? Or do I get Gwyneth to contact the Gelth and somehow find a way to bring them through and into the TARDIS, take them to a place where they can thrive. They never said if their planet was destroyed, but perhaps it was. Maybe that’s why they are stuck in the rift?”

“But to let them do that, it’s immoral.” Rose replied.

“Is it?” The Doctor asked honestly, with no bite to his words. “My people, we burn our dead. Our TNA is precious, and another species getting a hold of it could cause bad things, so we do not take chances.”

A groan from the divan interrupted the conversation, and Rose turned to see Gwyneth stirring. She prepared a cup of water for the woman, and knelt beside her head.

“It’s alright,” Rose comforted, brushing a few fine hairs off Gwyneth’s forehead as the woman opened her eyes slowly.

“My angels, miss? They came, didn’t they?”

“The did, yeah.” Rose replied, forcing a smile.

“They need me.” Gwyneth stated.

“They do,” The Doctor said, “Though I’m not entirely sure it’s an aid you or any of us can properly give them.”

Gwyneth say up, and Rose handed her the cup of water. “Drink slow,” She cautioned quietly.

As Gwyneth drank, Sneed turned to the Doctor. “I’m not sure I’ve followed any of this. What did you say they were, Doctor?”

“Aliens,” The Doctor said. “Gaseous beings that are too weak to hold form in your atmosphere, so they hide in the gas pipes.”

“And why do they need the girl?” Charles asked, face scrunched as if trying to see something clearer.

“Gwyneth is perfectly in tune with the rift, and therefore they can communicate through her. It came about from her living on it, and therefore, in some ways, became a part of it. Like with the seance, I believe Gwyn can open the rift and make a bridge for us to better speak with them.”

“Incredible.” Charles said, shaking his head in awe. “Ghosts that are not ghosts, but beings from another world who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers.”

“But should we let them.” The Doctor cautioned. “Rose has a point, in a way. Immoral as it may be, it could also cause a lot of problems for those who have known these bodies as people in life. Imagine walking down the street and seeing what was once your grandmother, your wife, maybe even your child. Hell, imagine you stumbled across a bloke you had hoped to see die and he had, only to be risen from the dead. When someone is gone, we can be irrational, try everything to get them back even when we know we can’t, or shouldn’t. It would be pandemonium, and worse, imagine how the living would suffer at the thought that someone they _did_ love no longer knows them?”

“But my angels, Sir, the need me.” Gwyneth protested.

“Gwyneth, I don’t think you understand.” Rose said gently, sitting beside the woman on the divan and rubbing soothing circles on her back.

“You would say that, miss. It’s very clear inside your head that you think I’m stupid.”

“No, not stupid. Just … ‘s complicated, ya see. It’s not just helping the Gelth, your angels, it’s ….”

“It’s not complicated at all, miss. The angels need me, and I know my own mind. If I can help them, then I will.”

Rose looked to the Doctor, and he seemed as torn as she felt about the whole thing.

He gave a heavy sigh. “It’s the dead of night, the streets will be empty. We could allow them through, take up the bodies they need to, and Rose and I can bring them to a safe place.”

“What about the families? Those people will be expecting to see their loved ones, yeah?” Rose asked. “Might be a bit complicated to explain why they can’t have their final goodbyes.”

“But it’s winter, madam.” Sneed said. “Ground is frozen, hard to bury the dead when you can’t get a shovel through. Most of the stiffs down below are long past their goodbyes and waiting for burial. Just gotta through an empty coffin in there, and you’re set.”

“Your empathy and compassion for those who have passed on or loved someone who has knows no bounds, Mister Sneed.” The Doctor replied sarcastically. He looked to Rose. “I know, it feels wrong to me, too. But I don’t see what else we can do.” He then turned back to Mister Sneed. “We need to find the rift, and we’ll find that in the weakest point of the house. Tell me, Mister Sneed, where have most of the ghosts been seen?”

Sneed shrugged. “That would be the morgue.” He said without preamble.

“No chance you were gonna say the gazebo, was there?” Rose mumbled.

The Doctor spared her a sympathetic grin, though she swore he saw his chest vibrating as if he was trying not to laugh at her. Her discomfort at the thought of heading into a basement full of bodies eased a bit at his silent, wordless tease, and she shook he heard before helping Gwyneth to her feet.

“Alright,” She said, “let’s get this over with.”

 

* * *

 

 

They entered the morgue en masse, and Rose stayed as near to the Doctor as she could. Charles, it seemed, felt a bit protective of her in his own way and stayed near, though at a respectable difference.

She could feel Sneed’s eyes on her arse the whole way down.

“Morgues.” The Doctor half grumbled, half moaned. “Can’t say I’m very fond of them. Don’t exactly have the best experiences with them.”

“Been in a lot of morgues, have you?” Rose countered.

The Doctor stiffened slightly. “No, but there’s a memory that, unfortunately, is strongly linked to them. A story for another time, I’m afraid.” He said as he walked into the middle of the room and looked around. “I’m not sure how to tell where the weak spot is, and I’m not certain a scan with the sonic will point use in the proper direction.” He said as he studied the ceiling, then let his eyes scan the walls.

“Doctor,” Charles said after some time had passed. “I think the room is getting colder.”

Rose furrowed her brow, but then noticed the growing chill that caressed her skin. She’d thought it was merely her body acclimatizing to the basement level until she glanced up and noted the mist forming above their heads. “Here they come,” She said.

Out the corner of her eye, she noted the Doctor glancing to her before looking up again. She was sure he watched where they traveled about as well as the Gelth found form like they had at the seance. One of them floated down to an archway leading to places Rose didn’t really want to think about. There weren’t as many bodies placed down here as she initially thought there would be.

“You have come to help! Praise the Doctor, praise him!” The child like voice from the being in the archway cheered. “Hurry, please. So little time. Pity the Gelth.”

“I’ll take you somewhere else after the transfer,” The Doctor explained. “I know of a few planets that you can thrive on, and I can take you there.”

“My angels,” Gwyneth said with a wide smile, looking at the beings floating about the room.

Which stuck Rose as odd, suddenly. She could plainly see the coffins easily accessible to those that were flying about the room, and it was certainly more than the three that were initially present at the seance. Nothing had stopped them from entering and possessing the old woman and the young man earlier, so why weren’t they just simply claiming the bodies that were down here already?

She looked to the Doctor, and could see he was looking about the room with a calculating look that made Rose wonder if he was thinking along the same lines as she was.

“Here,” The Gelth called. “Beneath the arch!”

Gwyneth moved as if possessed. “Beneath the arch,” She echoed, and a chill ran down Rose’s spin that exceeded simply being in the basement and in the presence of the Gelth.

She went to stop Gwyneth, was prepared to reach out and pull her back from the archway, but the Doctor grabbed her arm and yanked her back. “I don’t think it would be wise or safe to intervene at this point.” He said quietly in her ear as he held her to his side, watching Gwyneth and the Gelth.

“Establish the bridge, reach out of the void, let us through!” The Gelth said in near desperate tones.

“Yes, I can see you! I can see you. Come.” Gwyneth said in near rapture, though the dead look in her eyes made Rose’s stomach twist in knots.

“Bridge establishing.”

“Come! Come to me! Come to this world, poor, lost souls.”

“It has begun. The bridge is made.” The Gelth’s smile twisted into something sinister, and there was a shade of red now to the calm blue it had possessed before. Rose swallowed the lump in her throat as Gwyneth opened her mouth and more of the Gelth came pouring out. “She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open, we descend, the Gelth will come through in force.”

The red overtook the blue entirely, and there was a swirl of colors above and around them as the Gelth charged after the coffins and deeper into the catacombs to the bodies unseen.

“You said that you were few in number!” Charles protested.

“A few billion,” The Gelth snickered wickedly. “And all of us in need of corpses.”

Bodies began to rise, and the grip Rose and the Doctor had on each other tightened as they both instinctively backed up.

“Gwyneth!” Sneed charged toward his maid. “Stop this! Listen to your master, this has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone. I beg of you.” He tried to reason, gripping her shoulders as if he meant to shake her out of whatever spell had possessed her.

“Mister Sneed,” Rose called out. The little man may have been a pervert, but he didn’t deserve to be hurt. Yet it was too late as a corpse grabbed him from behind and held him still as a Gelth entered his mouth.

“Oh, I didn’t think that could happen.” The Doctor said as he inched them a little further away.

“I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come, march with us.” Sneed’s voice said in an eerie, child like way. He and the others started forcing them to back up against the far wall where a barred door from an old dungeon prison still remained. “We need bodies,” The body of Sneed and many others continued. “All of you, dead. The human race, dead.”

“Good thing I’m not human, then.” The Doctor tried to quip.

“Than three more bodies made vessels for the Gelth. We do not care of which species you are.”

Rose could faintly hear Charles protesting, and glanced to see that he was able to escape just as the Doctor gave her a shove. As the stone wall touched her bare upper back, the Doctor slammed the barred door shut, serrating them from the Gelth as they reached for them.

“Give yourself to glory. Sacrifice your lives to the Gelth.”

“I have faced worse than you and pulled through. I have survived the time war, and I will survive this as well, with Rose.”

“You will survive nothing. The Gelth will have you by the night’s end. The Gelth will take over this world and all it’s flesh.”

“Not while I live.” The Doctor countered fiercely.

“Then live no more.” The many hands of the Gelth reached for them, but the bars wouldn’t allow them a further reach.

“But I can’t die.” Rose reasoned in a fit of panic, watching as the cold hands of the dead attempted to reach for her. A small part of her mused that the body of Sneed was reaching for more inappropriate places, but even that bit of humor couldn’t shake the fear that wracked her body. She looked to the Doctor who seemed more nervous than he should. “Tell me I can’t die. I haven’t even been born yet, it’s impossible for me to die, isn’t it?”

“Time doesn’t work that way, Rose. It’s not a straight line, it’s a mess of lines that twist and turn. Traveling with me, moving along those lines, it means you can be born in the twentieth century and die in the nineteenth. I said it was dangerous, and I didn’t lie to you. I just didn’t imagine danger to look quite like this.”

“You did warn me.” She relented. “I wanted to come anyway.”

“And I wanted you to come. Lonely as I was, I should have let you stay behind and live your life. May not have been much to you, but at least you’d live. Live instead of dying here.”

“It’s not just dying. We become one of those.” Rose said, tilting her head slightly toward the army of Gelth possessed zombies still trying to read for them. “We’ll go down fighting, yeah?” She asked.

He chuckled nervously. “Swinging from a chain and knocking them out, if need be. You and me, Rose.”

“Together.” Rose stated.

“Together,” The Doctor affirmed, his hand slipping into hers, his fingers sliding in between her own. She turned her head, and met his warm, blue eyes. “I’m so glad I met you.” He said with sincerity, his smile reflecting the truth of every word.

“Me too.” She replied, knowing that she really did mean it.

Something about standing beside him, facing certain death, felt right. Which was stupid, really, when she considered all she’d been through. She didn’t escape Jimmy a bit over a year ago just to die by zombies, but there she was, facing the hoard with a man, alien, that she barely knew. And it was right. It was as though the stars and the universe were certain of her place beside him and instilled that fact on her soul, giving her comfort when she should have been crying and terrified.

 “Doctor!” Charles’ voice pulled them out of their locked gaze, searching for him behind the wall of zombies. “Turn off the flame, turn off the gas! Now fill the room, all of it, now!”

Charles was going around the room with a handkerchief pressed to his mouth and nose as he blew out the flames but opened the gas valve on the lanterns.

The Doctor’s mind seemed to race before a smile lit his features. “Of course! Filling the room with gas will draw the Gelth out of the bodies. They’ll become one with the atmosphere and unable to continue the attack.”

“We’ll choke to death!” Rose protested.

“I won’t. Once we can get out of here, once the Gelth here are downed, you and Charles get out of the building, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

“How?” Rose started to ask, but the Doctor shook his head.

“No time to explain.” He said, noting that the hoard had turned and were advancing on Charles. The Doctor opened the door again, and it took Rose a moment to wonder why the Gelth hadn’t thought to try and open the door to get to them before.

The Doctor lifted a tank of gas and smashed it against the wall, releasing the contents and causing the Gelth to evacuate the bodies all the more quickly. It also made Rose’s head start to spin.

“Gwyneth! Send them back,” The Doctor called to her, and Rose turned to see Gwyneth still perfectly still, her eyes wide and unfeeling. The action caused her to stumble a little, and in an effort to keep balance, inhaled more of the toxic air than she should have.

“I can’t. They’re too strong.” Gwyneth said.

Rose opened her mouth with words of encouragement on her tongue, but found she was unable to do much more than cough.

“Can’t breathe.” She choked out.

“Charles, get her out.” The Doctor said, looking over his shoulder at her. “Please, Rose.”

She hesitated. She wanted to help Gwyneth, she wanted to stay with him, but she could see in his eyes that staying wouldn’t do much more than make herself sick or worse.

“Come on,” Charles coughed, pulling as gently as possible on Rose’s arm and guiding her to the stairs.

The lack of proper air made the effort of climbing the stairs more difficult, and she and Charles were leaning heavily on each other, coughing while both pulling the other toward the front door. It felt like it was miles away when it wasn’t far at all, and when they emerged into the cold night air, Rose had never been more grateful for the burn in her lungs.

She took large, gulping lung fulls of fresh air in between coughing fits. She stumbled across the street, clutching her stomach and managing to make to a snow bank before she vomited. She ignored the similar retching sounds from Charles not far away, and once her stomach was empty and her lungs didn’t feel like collapse, she turned and moved a couple feet closer to the house they’d fled from.

Charles stumble up beside her, watching the dark house as he clutched her to him in an effort to keep her warm.

They waited, seeing the silhouette of the Doctor running quickly from the house just before it exploded in a ball of flames.

Rose pushed away from Charles and went to the Doctor, helping him back to his feet as the strength of the explosion knocked him over.

“I’m sorry,” he said, surprisingly not desperate for air as Rose and Charles had been. His panting seemed to be from mere exertion. “She was already dead. I suspect she was from the moment she stepped in the archway.”

“But … but she spoke to us, she helped us. She saved us. How could she have done that?” Rose asked, trying to wrap her mind around the face that the dead look in Gwyneth’s eyes was because she was truly gone.

“I think … well,” The Doctor frowned.

“There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Even for you, Doctor.” Charles said when the Doctor couldn’t answer, and the Time Lord merely nodded.

“She saved the world,” Rose said as she looked at the house still burning. “A servant girl. No one will ever know.”

“We’ll know.” The Doctor said, getting Rose’s attention. “And is it really so different than a shop girl doing the same thing?”

Rose gave him a sad smile, because he was right. She knew that no one save Mickey knew what she had done back in her own time, and that wouldn’t have changed had she not went with the Doctor. And while it gave her a slight boost in confidence, the joy was bitter sweet with the memory of Gwyneth in her mind.

 

* * *

 

 

“So what are you going to do now?” Rose asked Charles as he escorted them back to the TARDIS, though he had no idea what the destination would be. The Doctor had Rose on his arm like a gentleman, and Charles kept his hands behind his back and a slightly amused grin on his face as they traveled.

“I shall take the mail coach back to London, quite literally post-haste.” Charles replied, earning a chuckle from the two time travellers. “This is no time for me to be on my own, I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them.” He said resolutely, turning his head toward the lightly falling snow. “After all I learned tonight,” he continued, “there can be nothing more vital.”

“Good to hear you have lost your ‘hum-bug’ attitude.” The Doctor said, earning a gentle elbow in the ribs from his companion.

“Indeed!” Charles replied with a wide grin, turning back to them. “This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I’ve just started. All these huge, wonderful notions, Doctor! I’m inspired. I must write about them.”

“Do you think that’s wise?” Rose asked as the melancholy of knowing the future crept through the Doctor’s veins and pierced his hearts.

“I shall be subtle at first,” Charles placated as they approached the alley where the TARDIS was hidden. “The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was no the boy’s uncle, perhaps he was not of this Earth. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word, tell the truth!”

“The truth is out there.” The Doctor said, amusement overtaking the pain of knowing the end of this man’s story.

“Oh stop.” Rose admonished playfully, giving him a gentle small on the arms she held before turning to Charles as they stopped in front of the Time Ship’s doors. “I’m sure it will be wonderful.” Rose told the author.

“Yes, I’m sure it will be one of your best.” The Doctor said with as much smile as he could muster before offering his hand to Charles. “It’s been a pleasure meeting you, Mister Dickens.”

“Yes, and thank you for all you’d done.” Rose said as she stepped up and kissed the man on the cheek. Charles blushed, fidgeting like a schoolboy having just had his first peck from a girl.

“Oh, my dear, how modern.” He then cleared his throat. “But I suppose, you are not of this time. You have knowledge of future times.” He hesitated. “I must ask. My books, do the last?”

“Oh yes.” The Doctor replied.

“For how long?” Charles hesitated again.

“Forever.” The Doctor assured. “Now, we must be off. Time to head back to those future times.”

Charles frowned, looking the TARDIS up and down. “In that shed? The two of you?”

“Bit more roomier than you might expect.” Rose winked at him, and the Doctor held the grin threatening to break free from Charles’ renewed fluster back. “Goodbye, Mister Dickens.”

“Goodbye Rose, Doctor.” He replied, bowing to each slightly before frowning. The Doctor ushered Rose inside and shut the door before Charles could question how it was goodbye.

“Doesn’t that change history?” Rose asked as the Doctor headed to the console and prepared to put them in the time vortex. “If he writes about blue ghosts, doesn’t that change things?”

The Doctor stopped in front of the monitor and turned to Rose, watching her come toward him.

“In a week’s time it’s 1870, and in six months from now he’ll die from a stroke. He’ll never get to tell his story.” The Doctor said sadly, hearts clenching at the devastation in Rose’s eyes.

“Oh no, he was so nice.” Rose said as she stood beside him, watching Charles examine the TARDIS exterior on the monitor.

“But he was already gone in your time. Had been for over a hundred years. That’s the beauty of time travel Rose, remember? Days that were dead and gone, lived only once but for me, and now for you.” He put a hand on her arm. He watched as Charles finally put some distance between himself and the TARDIS, though he was still looking at it skeptically. “And since our dear friend has so few of those days left, let’s give him one, last, wonderful surprise.” He said, throwing the switch and dematerializing the TARDIS.

The last image they saw on the screen before it faded, was a joyous Charles Dickens laughing at the surreal nature of it all.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, I promise from the bottom of my heart that this story will not be abandoned and will be finished in a timely manor. It will be done within the next 12 months tops. Why I'm saying it this way is this: the possibility of a move from Canada to the US has become a very high probability for me, and could happen within a month. This means the majority of my time will be spent packing among other annoying moving tasks.
> 
> So if I don't updates take a bit longer, I apologize. You all can blame my husband for his extremely poor timing of a major relocation ;)
> 
> Until next update.


	7. Woman Wept

He could detect the higher levels of oxygen in the TARDIS atmosphere still lingering more than twenty four hours after he and Rose said farewell to Charles Dickens. Rose went to sleep not long after, and the TARDIS had put her vitals on the monitor while he tinkered to figure out the new wiring that came about her desktop change. The only time the time ship would allow anything else to be displayed was for a brief moment to check on his scans of anything affected by the time war or anything Gallifreyan.

“I’m starting to understand that perhaps you like Rose a bit more than you should.” He said, glancing up at the column as the ship hummed indignantly. “Even with Charley you wouldn’t allow me to monitor her quite so much as you do Rose, and we both know I was quite attached to Charley.” The ship hummed again, sounding noncommittal this time. “And what makes you believe Rose will be around any longer? Bad things could happen to her as well, they almost did back there.” The ship tsked him as much as a sentient ship could. “Oh yes, you can see all that is, was, and will be, but you don’t care to share. Tell me, did you know that mine and the time lord’s plan to hide our whole planet would end quite as spectacularly as it did?” He challenged, and the Old Girl remained silent. Instead of humming or groaning, the monitor switched from Rose’s vitals to a read out. “Yes, change the subject, why don’t you?”

The Doctor took in what the TARDIS was showing him. It was an effect of the time war, something was wrong with a planet, but it didn’t read as dangerous. Oddly, it didn’t seem to be inhabited by anything, though the planet read out showed it containing breathable air. The gravity was a little lighter than normal, but not enough to properly notice when moving about. A simple investigation, he figured, would be enough.

He went back to tinkering for a bit, putting on some _Madam Butterfly_ and getting lost in the music and the rhythm of sorting wires and checking circuit panels.

The Doctor didn’t lose focus until the clink of a tea cup beside his head startled him into awareness. Whipping his head around, he came face to face with a smiling, wide-awake Rose.

“Hello,” She said, her tongue peeking out of the corner of her mouth.

“Hello.” He replied, looking down at the cup and back at her. “I’ve worked right through breakfast, haven’t I?”

“Not much of one, to be honest. Never very good at whipping anything up, me, so was just tea and toast.” She then got on the floor and laid on her back beside him, looking up at the underside of the console with a slight frown as if she was diagnosing what she was seeing. “Not much like a car, this. Not that I thought it would be, but stared at the underside of a car ‘nough times that this feels a bit natural.”

The Doctor studied Rose as she focused her attention on the console’s underside, finding her sort of adorable for a human. He smirked, wondering what was going through that mind of hers as she seemed completely content to simply lay on the hard floor next to him.

“Mickey’s a mechanic,” She said as if he admitted his thought process out loud. “Been working on cars since he got his own at sixteen. He had an older mate, one who’d come by and help out his Gran with the stuff he couldn’t do, and he had a garage. He let Mickey sorta tinker here and there after school and on weekends when he could. Went with Mickey quite a bit when we were younger. And again, after ….” She trailed off, her eyes taking on a hazy sort of pain.

The Doctor reached over, covering her hand with his, causing Rose to whip her head around and look at him. “If you ever just want to recline while I tinker about with the Old Girl, you are more than welcome to.” He smiled gently, only to have it grow at the joy that replaced the negative light in Rose’s eyes. “But for now, go get a warm coat, you’re going to need it.”

“Why’s that?” She asked, a smile pulling at the corner of her lips. “Going to crash another author’s Christmas? Swing by JK Rowling’s place and find out how she ends the series?” Her tongue peeked out from between her teeth.

“JK Rowling … the name sounds familiar, but I … I’m sorry, I’m not sure I remember … what series was it again?” Rose’s smile fell, and she gapped at him in disbelief so palatable that he couldn’t hold back the laugh that came from so deep within, the Doctor could have believed it came from his toes. “I’m joking, Rose. I’m a time traveler, I have read nearly every popular book ever to grace the Original Earth’s literary world.”

“Right.” Rose said, laughing shyly to her self as she grabbed on to the edge of the console and swung herself up from underneath in a move so graceful he believed she really was a gymnast at one point in her life. “Well, keep that in mind, then, when I go lookin’ for something to read, later. Couldn’t afford to splurge on the latest one, and the library’s got a wait list that’ll probably take ‘til the next one that comes out to go through. But that can wait! I’ve got to get a jacket.” She said with a tilt of her chin as she straightened her shirt. She then turned and skipped down the corridor, and the Doctor merely sat up and shook his head before rising to his feet.

“Alright, Girl.” He said, giving the console a little stroke before putting in the coordinates for the next stop on the long list of places affected by the Time War. “Let’s hope there’s nothing dangerous.”

 

* * *

 

As Rose stepped out of the TARDIS, a chill swept over her. Much like when she stepped out into 1869 Cardiff, her shoe made an impression in a thin layer of snow. There were flakes fluttering in the air, and on the distant horizon there looked to be two moons in an indigo colored sky. It was light out, however, which complexed Rose enough that she ventured forward a few feet from the TARDIS and looked for a sun. She found it at their backs, too high in the sky for the moons to be visible.

And then it hit her.

Moons.

Plural.

Two.

Earth only had one.

She spun on her heel and gaped at the Doctor who wore that smug, suave grin that was both grating and endearing at the moment. He never told her where they were going, and he never corrected her assumption they’d be going back to Earth. He mentioned the Universe, other planets, but in no way had she ever expected he would actually _take her_ to another world.

“This is an alien planet.”

“Yes,” he said, his voice tickled with laughter. “This planet is called Zigma 24 Delta, though it’s more commonly referred to as Woman Wept. It’s a bit smaller than Earth, and has only one land mass. And that mass, in which we are standing on, looks exactly like a woman lamenting, with her hand on her face as her head is bent over and she is on her knees in grief. It was, and is, one of the most beautiful planets in the whole solar system of Dram 2. It is also the only one left.”

Rose looked around. “Why is it the only one left?” She asked.

“Because there was a small skirmish in the Time War in this area. The Daleks, my people’s main foe and the other side of the war, had been enslaving the locals of a planet in this solar system. My people came to stop them, as the weapons that could have been made would have had some devastating effects. The details of what happened were kept pretty quite, and any documentation I could scrounge up on the TARDIS while you were getting your jacket were heavily redacted. I suppose they wanted to keep something for the next president, had one survived. Anyway, the result of the battle was the total destruction of the planet, and the shock waves wiped out all the other four planets that happened to be on the same side of the sun at the moment. The solar system, of course, only had six planets to begin with.” Rose watched as he walked slowly toward a cliff face, looking up at it as he stuffed his hands in the pockets of his frock coat. “The results of the decimation, the shock waves, caused a could to form around the sun, flash freezing the planet. These are waves,” he said, pointing to what Rose thought was a cliff face. “Frozen in an instant, all the way through. If the planet had had any life before it wouldn’t have survived. The time we’re at now, this planet is about a thousand years post Time War, and it’s only just starting to warm up.”

“So the waves will thaw out eventually?” She asked as she joined him.

He shook his head, staring at the waves. “Possibly, but I can’t be sure. It’s still below freezing, and it may stay like his for eternity now. The TARDIS wouldn’t let me peek ahead.”

Rose smirked at the thought. The Time Ship, while still a bit unsettling in the way in constantly seemed to know what she wanted or needed, was growing on her. She could sense a personality inside the sentient ship, one that, had it been human, would have been just Rose’s type for a girl friend. The fact that the TARDIS seemed to be calling the shots in this relationship she had with her captain only made Rose more fond of her.

After a long stretch of silence, a thought niggled at Rose’s mind. “Why are you the only one out here doing the work? Where are all the other Time Lords when they did a lot of the damage?”

The second Rose looked up at the Doctor, she wished she could have taken the question back. The pain in his eyes was so clear her heart ached for him, and her gut twisted in empathetic agony.

He looked toward his feet and the snow, though his gaze seemed to see something much farther away.

“No one else is out here, because there is no one else.” He looked at her through the corner of his eye. “I’m the last one in this Universe. The rest ….”

“Whaddya mean, last in this Universe?” She asked, reaching out and taking his hand.

He squeezed it, and didn’t let go of the hold when he weakened the grip. “Myself and a few others of a similar mind did something we all thought was quite brilliant. We sent our whole planet to another Universe, as there are many out there. But … it was in the middle of a battle with the Daleks, and while we managed to take them out as well ….”

“You’re the only one who survived.” She finished for him. “I’m so sorry, Doctor.” Rose shook her head, stepping closer to him, taking his other hand and turning him to face her.

“Don’t be sorry for me, Rose.” He said gently. “I did what I had to do, and now … now I live with the consequences. And I’m not the only Time Lord left, I just need to … to find a way to get my planet and my people back.”

“Bet you will, too, clever as you are.” She said, biting her lip as she gave him a bit of an awkward hip check despite their position.

“Surprisingly not as clever as you think,” He said with a self-deprecating grin. “Not by Time Lord standards.” He looked around them, something pulling his attention enough to do a double take.

Frowning, Rose looked to see what it was, catching something in the pattern of a wave face that looked a lot like words.

“How about we go in the TARDIS, head to the library with some tea, and we can revisit the Wizarding World? We can read the nine books first, then move on to the fourteen films.”

“Nine books? Fourteen films?” Rose gapped at him, instantly distracted from the wave face.

“Well, one book was actually a script. Or was it two? And one of the films is a recording of the play that was made. Not the best work, to be honest, but it does help one relive the magic. And also, to be fair, five of the films are more prequels than anything else.”

The Doctor led her back toward the TARDIS, only dropping one hand and holding the other as they traversed. Before she stepped inside, though, Rose turned and caught one last glimpse at the wave face with the words in the pattern.

While she couldn’t make out both words before she went inside, the one she did sent a shiver down her spine as it was clear as anything and hard to put down as a simple coincidence.

The word was _Bad_.


	8. Dalek pt 1

There were other places they had traveled, planets and times that awed Rose as she and the Doctor worked their way through the TARDIS’s list of wheres and whens that had been affected by the Time War. Most were like Woman Wept - simply a bit or environmental change (or devastation, depending on how one viewed it). Some where much worse, with entire species either wiped out or one the brink of extinction.

The one thing Rose noted in the Doctor, regardless of the situation, was heart break in his eyes. The pain of the aftermath radiated from him, and no matter what kind of smile he tried to put on, it simply wouldn’t suppress how much it hurt. Each time she noticed, Rose would slide up beside him and entwine their hands.

They knew so little of one another, she would realize as she laid in bed at night. Bits and pieces would leak out here and there: like she knew he had been a grandfather, that he had two hearts, that he obviously had someway of breathing in air that wasn’t pure oxygen. She deduced that his brain was able to retain much more than hers ever could, the way he remembered dates and times of events spanning millions of years and thousands of planets. She learned how he liked his tea, and that it changed depending on the blend. That he had a soft spot for opera, or classical music, but didn’t seem to mind most other types of music. He seemed to enjoy what many called children or young adult novels.

“Because of the magic,” he had explained one night as they were curled up on the couch in the library, opposite ends turned toward each other. “Few if any novels of your time, aimed for adults, had such wonderful things as wardrobes taking children to another world, or an entire school brimming with the impossible. There are some fantastic novels for the more mature, don’t get me wrong. The Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, Charles, of course, and Mark Twain, they all did some wonderful things. But magic and mystery, Rose, those are what lure an adventurer like myself.”

She’d found herself becoming a bit more enchanted by him every day, every trip. He was, indeed, an adventurer. He looked to trips, regardless of the real reason, with a child like excitement that never failed to churn it within her as well. He was open with his laughter and smiles, encouraged young children of every species to do what was right and what they believed in before turning around and playing some strange, alien game with them. He helped, truly helped, where ever he could. He’d use his sonic to help stimulate plant growth for food, mend buildings where he could, or basically anything else that was withing his power to prevent those barely hanging on from slipping off the edge. And when he arrived to total destruction, where there absolutely nothing he could do (because he could not change the past), she was in awe at the fire and fatigue that danced together in his eyes.

He was becoming, as reluctant as she was to admit it, the most beautiful thing she had seen in all the universe thus far.

But it wasn’t the whole picture, and Rose knew it. She’d seen a taste of his fury with the Gelth and the Autons, but she knew there was likely much more within. He spoke little of the Time War, or his people, and changed the subject when asked of not avoid it all together.

She knew he had only just learned her last name when she offered it in way of introduction to someone else. She also couldn’t blame him for his avoidance of certain topics as she hadn’t breathed a word about Jimmy, or much more of her mother or father than he’d already known. And when Mickey somehow came up in conversation, they both inelegantly maneuvered away from his mention.

Yet it didn’t seem to bother him, or her for that matter. Living with someone, traveling with a person barely known to them, didn’t seem as odd or uneasy as she thought it would be.

“So where are we off to today?” Rose asked with ease as she came into the console room, hair washed and dried, a plan gray hooded jumper over a white tank top paired with her denims. She suspected the TARDIS somehow washed them every night, and the closet in her bedroom seemed to have an assortment of plan jumpers and t-shirts so that she could change things up from what she’d run aboard the TARDIS wearing.

The Doctor was frowning, his ascot discarded on the console and his frock coat slung over the jumpseat. He appeared exactly as so many heroes of regency dramas on BBC looked, with his waist coat and shirt sleeves, his trousers tucked into his boots.

“I’m not sure,” he said, a tinge of frustration to his tone of utter concentration. “I meant to take us to Alfava Metraxis but there is something … something pulling the TARDIS off course. A signal, of some sort, that ….”

There was such a guarded look to his eyes that Rose had to ask, “D’ya think it could mean one of your people?”

His head whipped around and he stared at her for a moment before the slightest upturn of his lips appeared. “It does have chronotransendant capabilities.” The slight smile left, “But it’s not from a Time Lord. At least, I don’t think it is, I doubt it very much. Knowing what I went through after … well, the TARDIS wouldn’t keep that from me if they were, would you Old Girl?” He asked the ceiling.

The column in the center of the room glowed warmly for a moment, just a bit brighter than normal, and a gentle, soothing hum filled the room.

Rose looked about, still in awe with the way the TARDIS seemed to communicate without words, understanding somehow that she was assuring the Doctor that it was exactly as he said.

“But it is a call for help,” The Doctor said, refocusing on the screen. “And I never ignore a call for help.” He said, his voice going a bit deeper and more dangerous.

He started the intricate dance of flying the TARDIS, the one that Rose often wondered if she should learn as well, and soon the grinding noise the Old Girl made every time they were about to go somewhere filled the room.

Rose backed up until she could feel the rail at her back, then grabbed on as hard as she could.

The landing was oddly smooth, considered about half the time she wound up on the floor. And she frowned at the Doctor who also seemed a bit perturbed by the ease of it all.

“Well,” he said, picking up his frock coat from the jumpseat. “It appears we’re on Earth. Year … 2012.”

“2012?” Rose repeated. “Earth? But that’s so close. Close to my time, anyway. I should be … twenty-six.”

“So young,” The Doctor teased as he began to put on his jacket.

“Wait, hold on.” Rose stopped him as he put one arm in the sleeve. She looked him up and down, chewing her lip a bit as she did. He was really quite fit, even if his clothes were a bit unorthodox. And it was the clothes she was focusing on. “I go out in kit from my time, you say I’d stir up the masses, or something. Yet you walk about in clothes from the eighteen hundreds.”

The Doctor looked down at his clothes and back up to her. “Yes. I quite like this look, though I’ve been known to change it up a century or two. Hopefully no sooner than that, but accidents happen. And on occassion, I will change to fit into the locale.”

“Well, if it was a bit eccentric to be mucking about like you’re Mister Darcy in 2005, bet 2012 won’t be much different.” She pointed out.

He smirked and, much to Rose’s surprise, pulled his arm out of his sleeve. “You’re right. I do want to blend in a bit, be less conspicuous. I will be back in just a tick.” He said, turning and heading toward the corridor.

Once he had disappeared, Rose stood next to the console and ran her fingers along the edge. “Hope I didn’t offend him.” She said, and heard the reassuring hum. “Not sure what that was supposed to be, exactly, but if you’re saying I didn’t, I’ll have to take your word for it. Bit hard to tell with him, I think. Just, well, sure if I’d stuck around London a bit longer, mum would have wondered why he dressed the way he does.” A thought hit her in that moment. “Blimey, I’ve been gone for months. I think. Has it been months already? Feels like. No, can’t be, haven’t gotten my monthly yet. Unless, I’m not up the duff, am I?” She said to herself. The TARDIS made a noise that reminded Rose of a laugh, the lights flickering softly. She studied the ceiling. “Okay. Sentient, right? So you understand me. But you’re a machine, so you don’t have a voice, so you can’t answer. Alright, okay, blink once for yes, twice for no. M’not pregnant, am I?”

The column distinctly flickered twice.

Relief washed over Rose in an instant. “Alright, has it been more than a month?” There was another two blinks. “So how long has it been, then? Right, that’s not ….”

There was a series of little beeps and pings, and a small piece of paper started to rise on the console a couple feet away. Rose moved toward it, ripping it off when the clicks, pings, and beeps all stopped, and read what was before her.

_Companion: Rose Marion Tyler_

_Age upon boarding: 19 earth years._

_Home location and time: London, England, Earth, 21st Century._

_Length of stay: 28 days_

“Blimey, nearly a month then. I should probably be popping over to visit my Mum. Not now, of course. Be a bit awkward, that. Hate to run into myself, too. Unless I’m not with her. Might just be still out traveling with the pair of you.”

The TARDIS’s hum was so warm and _caring_ that Rose felt it in her bones.

“We can certainly see your mum,” The Doctor’s voice came from behind her, and Rose set down the paper to turn to look at him. “But since we are in Utah, let alone seven years in your future, I doubt now would be a good time.”

Rose was too tongue tied to think of a response.

He was lovely before, bloody gorgeous, in fact. But now he was a bit … sexy. She could see his brown boots peeking out a pair of well tailored denims. He still had his white, linen shirt, but it was untucked and without a waistcoat to obscure the silhouette of his lean build. And in place of his frock coat was a leather peacoat with brass buttons. He still appeared every bit the aristocrat, but he was modern with a slight touch of bad boy.

She must have been staring and observing a bit to long, because he fidgeted with the jacket before asking, “Is it alright? I don’t know why, but there was something about the jacket that called to me. Like a life I’ve yet to live or may have lived would love it.”

“S’fine.” She managed to choke out. Clearing her throat, she tried again. “Yeah, it’s, ah, it’s more modern. Not … not something I would see around the estates much, but, yeah.”

He smirked, and Rose was absolutely positive there was a tinge of a blush on his cheeks before he headed toward the door. “Shall we?” He asked as he passed.

Rose followed, a bit zombie like at first, then at a bit of a quicker pace. The Doctor paused at the door for her, opening it and waving her through.

The room they stepped into was eerily dark. Very dim lights highlighted what was likely display cases, and the emergency lights on either end of the room added to the feeling that they should turn around and leave where ever they were in Utah in 2012.

She heard the Doctor’s boots on the tiled floor, sensed him moving away from. Before she could ask where he was going, the lights in the room came on, illuminating the horrors and wonders exhibited around them.

“Blimey! It’s a great big museum!” Rose gasped out, heading toward a stuffed arm with claws.

“An alien museum, it would seem.” The Doctor replied, looking around with cautious awe. “Remnants from all sorts of invaders of Earth, as well as basic space exploration. 2012, you lot haven’t made it far enough for … any of these to even be a possibility unless it was retrieved from a clean up. Well, except that,” the Doctor said, and Rose turned and moved beside him. It looked like a gage of some variety.

“What’s that?”

“Milometer from the Roswell Spaceship. Actual crash landing, unfortunately for the species who crashed. I’ve never managed to make it to the area in order to identify them properly, though I doubt they were the little green men everyone of your time always imagines aliens to be.” He said with a smirk, looking at her as if she’d said as much herself.

She smiled back, tongue between her teeth, “Yeah, but I know better. Never would have though you an alien, though.” The quirk of his eyebrow made her blush, and the averting of her eyes to his torso didn’t help anything.

 _Does he have abs?_ Rose wondered. _Bet he’s got a highlight. Bet he’s all strength but nothing is really defined, just highlighted. Blimey, that Mister Darcy look was hiding an awful lot._ She peeked up at him, seeing an amused smirk starting to form while that brow remained fully raised. She felt the blood rush to her face and she turned away.

“Don’t tell me you can read minds,” She asked.

“No,” She chuckled. “Not in the sense you’re thinking. I would need to be touching your temples and really concentrating with you. I am telepathic, if I were around … well, we’d sense each other.” He looked around as his humor faded, and before Rose could ask how he seemed to know what she was thinking, he was moving with swiftness to something a couple cases down. She followed him, peering around him to see the metal head in the case. “Look at you.” He said, caressing the glass.

“What is it?” She asked before reading the plate below.

_“Ghost” head from the battle of Canary Wharf, 2007. Found on the shores of Darlig Ulv Stranden, Norway._

“An enemy I have faced more times than I’d like. And, I’m afraid, reading the information provided … an enemy I will face again.” He sighed with frustration. “Just created a fixed point by reading that. I’m going to _have_  to be there, knowing it’s happened and that there is no way you lot would likely know how to deal with it at such a time.”

“A fixed point? Whaddya …?”

Rose never got to finish the sentence as suddenly the doors at either end of the room burst open, and a literal small army came in with guns pointing right at them. A hand to her side to ensure she remained behind him, The Doctor backed them up a couple feet, putting the all closer to their back, and raising his hands as she did.

“We mean no harm, honestly. I registered a distress signal coming from here and felt compelled to answer it.” He attempted to explain.

Not one soldier moved, not one flinched, they all stared and remained still as statues with their guns pointed at them.

There was the distant click of shoes, heels likely, and a nondescript man and a woman with glorious red curls came toward them. Both were dressed in suits, the woman’s being a pencil skirt that Rose wondered how she could possibly walk in, and both looked a bit more concerned than the aggravated they were trying to give off.

“You two look like you might just be in charge of something, hopefully this place.” The Doctor said, his smile as charming as Rose had ever seen it. “There seems to be a mistake. We mean no harm, truly. We were just ….”

“How did you get in?” The man asked bluntly, his tone stating clearly that he wasn’t about to allow for anymore chit chat.

The Doctor’s smile faded. “I got a distress signal, I came to investigate.”

“Yes, but _how_ did you get in? You’re fifty-four floors below ground level, in a remote, secure location, known only by those who work here and the president of the United States.” The man stared at Rose, and she felt as though she was being interrogated without any of the questions being directed at her. It reminded her distinctly of the time when Jimmy ran into a bit of a snag, she never did find out over what, and the police were dragged her off to the side when all she meant to do was pay his bail. She didn’t eat lunch for a week before she managed to suck up the courage to pawn a gold chain given to her by her grandmother Tyler.

The Doctor remained silent and lowered his arms. Once Rose hesitantly done the same, he gripped her hand in an iron-tight hold the nearly hurt.

He and the man stared one another down, the woman simply watching with a pursed expression.

“Fine,” The man said with a shrug. “We’ll place you into holding until the boss gets here, and he’ll figure out  what to do with you then.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Never been in jail before.” Rose said as she paced in front of the iron door that kept them locked in. “Can it be considered jail when there are no bars?”

The Doctor, lounging on the cot in the corner with one knee bent over the other and both arms tucked behind his head, furrowed his brow in thought. “Likely, considering lots of places don’t have prisons in the same way you think of them. I think the question is more along the lines of ‘can it be considered jail if the man keeping us is not of any real authority’?”

“Why would you say that?” Rose asked as she moved across the room to lean on the wall by the cot.

“Well, there was no ‘you have the right to remain … whatever. And while we were held at gun point, they were not of the country’s military. It would seem that this is a private facility, nothing you have to worry about going on to your record.” He smiled slyly.

“Do I have one?” Rose asked him.

“Do you?” He countered.

“I dunno, you tell me. Know the TARDIS has given you more information ‘bout me than I have. And you have a time machine, yeah? So it seems only, I dunno, logical that you’d check on my future sometime while I was sleeping.”

The Doctor made a hum of compliance, cocking his head to the side. “No,” He said, dragging out the word. “No, I’ve never done that. Never thought to do that, honestly. I have a stronger time sense this go around so I could have always taken a glimpse at your time line, see where you would end up.” He turned and looked at her full on. “But I can’t. Something about you, Rose, is preventing me from seeing where you’ll end up. Oh, I see that we were supposed to meet up at some point, but that’s it. Once our time lines converge, regardless of how or when, I can’t see anymore.”

Rose’s heart pounded. “What’s that supposed to mean? Was I … was I meant to die in that basement? When we met?”

“No,” The Doctor replied immediately, getting on his feet and standing before her with a speed and grace that only an alien could muster. He took each of her hands in one of his and held her eye. “I swear, Rose, that that was never your destiny. When I can’t see the future like this, it means … it means you are,” He paused, seeming to steel himself against something. “It means, Rose Tyler, that you are quite intricately connected to my own future, and a Time Lord can never see his or her own time line. It would be terrible if they could, it’s how … how ….”

“How you’re the only one left of your kind.” Rose filled in the blank gently, pulling one hand from his grip and resting it at the junction between his neck and shoulder. “Had they all been able to see ….”

“Yes, had they.” He said with a flash of a grin he didn’t mean.

Before anything else could be said, a pair of guards came into the room, three more out in the corridor with their guns blatantly on display.

“Have I ever said how much I detest guns? And violence in general? You could simply ask nicely, and I’m sure Rose and I would have followed you to wherever you’re planning on taking us. We’d have used our manners and been ever so kind.”

They didn’t say anything, and a couple beats later, the woman with the lovely red curls came into the room, lips pursed and shoulders straight.

“Mister Van Statten wants to see you.” She said with an air of authority.

“Wonderful.” The Doctor said with a touch too much sarcasm, making the woman frown a bit further.

Rose wrinkled her nose at the name, but said nothing. It didn’t really invoke images of a kindly but eccentric millionaire who just happened to have a bunch of space junk and alien parts.

And at that thought, Rose glanced nervously at the Doctor.

He looked normal on the outside. As he took her hand in his, keeping her by his side as they followed the men out the room, the three with guns at their back, she took comfort in his cool touch. That was an alien thing that if they came in contact with him it may give him away. But no, that could be explained away, like she’d done originally. But his hearts, those would expose him. So would his inhuman way of being able to breath in such a different way than humans. And his strength ….

Rose tried not to think of all the things that could expose the Doctor and his true nature, including the man himself when he had a whim to do so. So many things could go wrong, and they still didn’t even know why they were drawn there.

They entered an office as boring and nondescript as the corridors that they were being led down.

A short, bald man with awful facial hair was speaking with a bloke about Rose’s age. While both had dark hair and brown eyes, and could possibly pass as father and son, the bald guy appeared to belong in awkward pattern shirts with a bit of grotesque chest hair peeking out. He was also quite American. The younger one was dressed like those guys on the estate did when they wanted to go somewhere “nice”. An oxford with a pair of pants that weren’t dress in nature but certainly not denims.

Both of them looked over when they entered, both eyed her over in that leering way she’d become used to long ago, and then went back to what they were looking at before.

“What does it do?” The bald man asked as he looked over something that reminded Rose of a Pan flute. The bald man took it from the younger one, looking it over.

“Well you see, the tubes on the side must be to channel something.” The young, and apparently British, man replied. “I think maybe fuel…”

The Doctor laughed.

“Shut it,” the woman who came with them hissed.

“Sorry, I just couldn’t help myself.” The Doctor apologized insincerely. He turned to the pair of men on the other side of the desk. “Fuel? Do you really believe that? Did you really look at that beautiful, exquisite craftsmanship from Alpha Five Delta and think ‘this must be a fuel injector?’”

The young man shifted about, trying not to rub his palms on his legs while avoiding eye contact with both the bald man and the Doctor. Rose had to suck her lips in her mouth in order to smother the laugh she desperately wanted to let out.

“Well, what is it if it’s not part of a space ship?” The bloke said a bit petulantly.

The Doctor flinched toward them, and the sound of guns being cocked made the Doctor still. The bald man rolled his eyes and waved off the armed guards before extending the alien tech in his hands toward the Doctor.

“Thank you,” the Time Lord said as he placed it on his open palm. “It doesn’t take a lot to draw the melody out of it, you just need to be delicate.” He explained as he caressed the top of the instrument with his fingers in such a way that a every hair on Rose’s body seemed to stand on end in hopes to have the Time Lord apply the same attention to them.

“It’s a musical instrument,” The bald man stated the obvious as the lovely notes of music echoed in the otherwise silent room. The Doctor nodded and smiled, continuing to play a little while longer. “Here, let me.” The bald man stood, grabbing off the Doctor’s palms and causing the notes to die in an awful, grating matter.

“I did say ‘delicate’, didn’t I?” The Doctor stage whispered to Rose. She smirked inspite herself, and he smiled ever so slightly before turning back to the bald guy as he attempted to play. “Doesn’t take a lot of pressure, really. You caress it.”

“Like a lover?” The red haired woman, who had seemed so stern before, asked in a near breathless way.

The Doctor chuckled gently, “I suppose so.”

Mere seconds later, the beeps and clicks that the bald guy was pulling from the instrument became beautiful music. There was a slight difference to what Rose had noted came from the Doctor’s playing. For whatever reason, she didn’t find the music quite as alluring.

“You’re getting quite good at that.”

“You were, too.” The man said. He tossed the instrument on the floor causing the Doctor to flinch and Rose to clench her jaw.

 _Honestly,_ throwing _a beautiful thing like that to the floor like it’s nothing._

“You’re quite the expert, in fact. Who exactly are you?” The man asked, losing his smile and trying to look intimidating. It was laughable, really, though Rose knew better than to let even a smirk get through.

“I’m the Doctor,” replied the Time Lord. “And you must be this Van Statten I heard of.”

“I am.” The man, Van Statten, said simply. “Henry Van Statten, and you trespassed. Though how is the real question. I find it hard to believe that you, an apparent expert on extra-terrestrial artifacts just _happened_ to stumble upon the most valuable collection in the world.”

“Yes, well, I have been known to find a lot of things by accident.” The Doctor replied.

“Fifty three floors down? How did you get in, huh? You and your little cat burglar accomplice.” He leered at her, and the Doctor shifted to put himself more between them. Van Statten smirk, and it made Rose’s stomach churn. “You’re quite the collector yourself. She’s rather pretty.”

“She’s gonna smack you if you keep calling her ‘she’,” Rose snapped from behind the Doctor.

“She’s English, too.” He turned to the younger man. “Hey, little Lord Fauntleroy, got you a girlfriend.”

“You didn’t ‘get’ anyone anything when it comes to Rose.” The Doctor bit out. “I don’t care who you are or what authority you think you have, you will respect my companion and myself.”

“Why’s that?” Van Statten asked smugly, folding his arms across his chest.

The Doctor reached into his leather jacket and pulled out a small billfold. Rose smirked, believing it was the psychic paper, until she noticed it wasn’t quite the same. There was a notch in the back that looked like a rivet,  and  the leather itself looked a bit sturdier.

The Doctor opened the billfold and handed it to Van Statten. The man reached out for it, his smug smile fading a touch as he looked on.

“UNIT.” He said.

“Yes, UNIT. I’m sure you realize that what you have down here is technically illegal.”

Van Statten scoffed. “Nothing they would be able to keep me in jail for. I may not have a fancy badge, but I’ve been known to help out the not-so-secret government agency happy.”

“Yes, but I bet they didn’t know you had all this when you helped them a time or two. And, while I’m sure the US office would be a bit more lack under normal circumstances, contact with the British, Asian, and South American offices bringing to light your collection would force them to turn their heads from looking the other way. We received a distress call, it came from here. How we got here or how we received it is, quite frankly, not your business, and you don’t need to know more than what I’ve told you. So, Mister Van Statten, I will tell you this once and only once: you will respect me, and Rose, and anyone else in the room with me, are we clear? Yes? Excellent, now, if you want to send me on my way, I will need to know what alien tech here in your little cave of wonders happened to register with my scans.”

Van Statten, for his part, looked a mix of contrite and irritated.

“Alright, Doctor, I’ll play.” He said as if he still completely had the upper hand. “I have one living specimen. It’s in a cage near where you were found. Would you like to see?”

“Another prisoner?” Rose asked, stepping out from behind the Doctor. “How could it send out a distress signal if it’s another prisoner?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Van Statten asked.

“Matter-of-fact, I would.” Rose replied, hands on her hips.

Van Statten laughed. “No, I don’t think so, Doll Face. Bit dangerous for a pretty lil thing like you. English,” he said to the younger man, “Look after the Doctor’s crumpet, won’t you?”

“Oh, no, she comes with me.” The Doctor said flatly. “I don’t let her out of my sight with any of your … employees, are we clear?”

Van Statten simply shrugged. “You want to risk her life, by all means. English, come with. Goddard, inform the cage we’re coming down.”

The red haired woman nodded once, and was on an in-ear communication device in an instant.

“What happened to the man she was following around before?” The Doctor asked as they headed toward the lifts at the other end of the hall.

“Palowski? Had to get rid of him. Incompetent. Probably doesn’t even remember his name at this point.” Van Statten laughed to himself. The English bloke looked distinctly uncomfortable with that thought.

They were quiet for the most part, which Rose was quite surprised about considering Van Statten struck her as a man who would get off simply by hearing himself talk.

When the lift doors opened, Van Statten led them toward a heavy mettle door.

“We’ve tried everything to get the creature to talk. It’s shielded itself, but there are signs of life inside.” He said as the door opened. A man in a a sort of haz-mat looking suit stepped out, removing a helmet that looked like those Mickey wore when welding.

“Inside what, or do I dare ask?” The Doctor question as the other man approached.

Van Statten merely smiled.

“Welcome back, sir.” The new arrival greeted. “I’ve had to take the power down, the Metaltron is resting.”

“Metaltron?” The Doctor repeated incredulously.

“Thought of it myself. Good isn’t it?” Van Statten asked as if there could be no doubt.

Rose snorted.

Her fellow Englishman did his best not to react and had to turn his head to hide the smile he failed to hide with a cough.

“Right,” The Doctor said as he cracked an obvious grin. “Well, let’s find out the proper name for it, shall we?”

The man in the suit took off his gloves and held them out to the Doctor.

“Here, you’d better put these on. The last guy that touched it … burst into flames.”

Rose’s eyes went wide as the Doctor eyes the gloves suspiciously. “Then I won’t touch it, will I?”

This time, Rose heard another feminine snort, and turned to see Goddard a few feet behind them. She gave Rose a smirk, which she couldn’t help but return.

“Go ahead, Doctor,” Van Statten gestured to the open door, “impress me.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes before he headed through the doorway, the man in the suit shutting the door behind him. Van Statten marched over quickly, whispering something into the man’s ear that he nodded to, then gestured for the rest of them to follow him.

He brought them over to a monitor, and leaned over it so that Rose could barely make out what was on the practically dark screen. The Doctor was only just discernible, a shadow moving around with only a couple lights visible.

He scuffed his feet, and there was the sound of metal moving around.

“It’s absolutely barbaric what you’ve been through, by the looks of things. Likely all at Mister Van Statten’s orders to find out who or what you are. But I received your call for help, and I’ll do all I can to get you back where you belong.” He sighed. “Where or whenever that may be. I’m the Doctor, by the way.”

There was a lot of quiet before there was a reply in a robotic, monotone voice and a dim blink of blue light appeared on the screen.

“DOC-TOR.”

There was absolute silence.

“ _THE_ DOCTOR?” It started to sound more desperate, and more enraged.

“It … it can’t be. No, no, it can’t be. You couldn’t survive, you couldn’t ….”

“Get the lights on, I want to see what’s going on in there.” Van Statten ordered, and Rose heard the thud of a heavy switch moving.

It looked like a pepper shaker with a whisk and a plunger. The blue light that broke through the darkness was like a telescope and it seemed pinned to the Doctor who stood stock still.

The Time Lord looked torn between utter despair and complete rage, like it would take little more than a breath to push him in one direction or the other.

“EXTERMINATE!” The thing yelled, and the Doctor bolted for the door.

“Let me out!” He called as it repeated it’s cries.

“EXTERMINATE.”

And Rose held her breath, terrified for what might happen to the Time Lord.

 


	9. Dalek pt 2

"YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE DALEKS. YOU MUST BE DESTROYED."

He waited for the pain, because while he'd never had the pleasure of feeling a Dalek's ray that was meant to kill, he'd heard stories from those lucky enough to regenerate after a glancing blow. He thought of Rose, stuck seven years ahead of her time, a country away with a man he didn't want to even think about her being near. He thought of the Time Lords lost in another Universe and how he was likely to meet the same fate as those other twelve that were unfortunately caught in the cross fire.

But nothing happened.

He turned away from the door and looked at the Dalek. If such a creature could express emotion, if it could even _have_ emotion, it would have looked quite befuddled. As it was, the way the eye stock kept looking down at it's blaster and back at the Doctor, the way the blaster moved about, was pathetically adorable on the tin-can menace.

Laughter came from the Doctor before he even realized it was happening. Peels of it, making his chest ache for lack of breath and his eyes stretch wide with madness of it all.

"Oh, look at you." He said, shaking his head. Bitterness twisted his smile and colored his voice as he slowly stalked toward his greatest enemy. "Here we are, in a room with no way for me to escape, and you chained down but your blasters free, and you can't kill me. Oh, if you lot could feel any more than hate I bet you would be _raging_ right about now." He threw his arms wide as if to make himself a bigger target as he stared down the eye stock. "Your one function in life, and you can't even do that properly." He ran a hand through his curls, tugging them a bit before letting his hand fall against his side with a thud. "You're useless. Last of the Daleks, and you can't even carry on the prime directive. Best thing to happen to the Universe, really. But still…."

His mind trailed off, thinking of the moment Gallifrey disappeared and the entire Dalek fleet wiped itself out.

"LAST OF THE DALEKS?" The Dalek questioned. "EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN!"

The Doctor chuckled darkly. "You destroyed yourselves, with a bit of my help. Well, mine and a few other Time Lords that you were trying so desperately to destroy. You lost the war. But then again, so did we."

"YOU LIE." The Dalek retorted.

"I only wish. We're it, you and I. There are no more Daleks out there, no more Time Lords. That's why I was the one who picked up your distress call, because it was yours, I know it. And they were treating you horribly in here, I can not deny that. But …." He turned away, pulling at his hair again. "But knowing everything you've likely done since the moment of your creation, I'm almost willing to believe it's for the best. Letting them destroy you in this way, slowly making you go insane." He looked at the switches to the side, following a wire from the back of the controls to where it connected to part of the chains holding the Dalek.

The Doctor went to the switch and caressed it.

"It would be so easy to wipe you from existence. Flip this switch, up the voltage, and no more Daleks. Just like I should have done a very, very long time ago."

"HAVE PITY." The Dalek stated.

"Why? Dalek's have never shown pity, I don't think you even know what it _means_ to pity. You're a danger to this planet, these people. Functioning or not, I don't doubt you'll find a way to get what you want in the end, your kind have always been a bit crafty."

He ran his fingers over the handle of the switch one last time, and on impulse, flipped it.

He couldn't say that he felt guilty over the screams of agony, not when he knew the terror the bloody Daleks had spread throughout the universe. But there was a sick, twisting knot in his stomach that made him throw the switch back off just as Van Stattan and the Dalek's tormentor came back in.

"You're absolutely right, there's something inside," He said to the both of them, his big Time Lord brain forgetting who said what not fifteen minutes before. "It's nasty, I'm not sure you want to see it. But I will tell you this," He pointed to the golden shell protecting the mutation inside. "That is the most dangerous creature in the universe. If it gains power, if it gets out, it could wipe out half the country before your president even has a chance to issue a state of emergency. Destroy it, for the love of Rassilon, don't let it live with all these innocents in this base." He stepped from the room, hearing Van Statten starting to spout orders but not really hearing what they are.

"Doctor?" Rose's voice cut through some of the fog, and he turned to see her approaching him cautiously. The young man who barely took his eyes off of her from the moment they entered Van Statten's office, was hovering close by as if he could somehow protect Rose from what ever harm the Time Lord could cause her.

"I'm alright." He said without feeling, meeting Rose's warm brown eyes. He could tell she knew he was lying, and took a step toward her.

The young man took a step closer as well, narrowing his eyes a bit.

Rolling his eyes, the Doctor took another, larger step to close most of the distance between he and Rose. Cupping her cheek a moment before he realized how forward such a gesture was, he dropped his hand on her shoulder and put on an insincere grin. "I promise, I will be alright."

"Didn't look alright in there." She said with a forced joviality that warmed his hearts.

"It's …." He couldn't find the words, and he didn't have the time as Van Statten came around the corner.

"Doctor," he said with a smarmy grin that made the Doctor's lip want to curl in disgust. "Walk with me."

"Why?" He asked with a sigh.

"I want to discuss this Dalek with you." He replied, hands behind his back, rolling on his heels a little.

Another sigh, and the Doctor looked to Rose once more. She looked torn, chewing her lower lip and wringing her fingers.

"I could show her my workshop." The young man volunteered. Rose stopped ringing her fingers as she went rigid. "I mean, if she wants to, that is."

Rose barely looked over her shoulder at Van Statten's employee, before she leaned toward him. "I can. I mean, I think … I think you need some space, yeah?" She whispered to him. "And if this Van Statten bloke can help you with the Dalek, thing …."

"Are you comfortable with going off like that with this …." He eyed the eager young man, suspicious of his motives for getting his Rose, _his companion_ , alone.

Rose rolled her eyes, humor sparkling in them as her lips gave just the barest hint of a smile. "This one's harmless compared to some of the blokes I've been around." The humor and smile faded as she placed her hand on his extended arm. "Just worried about you."

"Don't be." He said, wondering to himself if maybe it wasn't the best thing in the world that he felt a flicker of something that he hadn't sensed since Charley left. "I'll talk some sense into this …."

"Doctor." Van Statten said with a touch of impatience that had the Doctor huff quietly.

"All will be well." He said, squeezing Rose's shoulder. With a nod, he turned to face the private collector, weary of the wicked delight in the man's eyes.

"So, tell me about this Dalek, Doctor."

* * *

 

"Sorry about the mess," Adam said. And Rose knew his name because the introduction was one of the first of many things he spouted off the moment they were alone. Adam Mitchell, the youngest graduate with a double masters some university-that-Rose-couldn't-give-to-figs-about had ever seen had been head hunted by the oh so great Henry Van Statten nearly the moment the diploma was in his hand.

He never once said exactly what those masters were in, but Rose was sure they were quite impressive.

"Mister Van Statten sorta lets me do my own thing," Adam continued as he cleared a spare chair in the room. He turned to smile at Rose, all cocky charms and self assured. "So long as I deliver the goods." He added with a subtle wink that could pass for an eye twitch if Rose wasn't receptive.

Which she really wasn't.

Oh, he was her type in the physical sense. He was fit, tall, dark hair and eyes, charming smile and all that. But for some reason she didn't want to think on too much, he was lacking. And maybe just a bit appalling. The latter could have been because of his mannerisms and the like, she never did find guys who knew they were clever attractive.

Except for the Doctor.

Who wasn't her type at all.

And alien to boot.

But she still found him attractive, even though she didn't want to admit it even to herself.

"What do you think that is?" Adam broke her inner thoughts, and she frown out him before realizing she had been walking along the work bench, running her fingers over random bits of alien things as she went. Her fingers had come to rest on a chunk of something cool, and she picked it up to look at it.

"A lump of metal." Rose said, though her voice inflicted to sound like a question. It was an old habit from the days of Jimmy, and even before. Never make a boy or man look stupid, that's what her Mum always said, their egos couldn't handle it.

"Yeah, yeah but I _think,_ well, I'm almost certain, it's from a hull of a spacecraft."

Rose looked down at the metal in her hand. It looked like a part of a car, or a building. Honestly, it could have come from anything, and likely had. So she smiled and nodded, carefully placing the metal piece down on the table.

"The thing is," Adam said, leaning against the table in a way that Rose imagined he thought made him look casual and relaxed. She wondered if maybe he idolized Van Statten for more reasons than simply giving him a job. He continued without noticing the slight, quick curl of revulsion Rose's lips took. "The thing is, it's all true. You've seen it, that Dalek thing. It's things like that the United Nations tries to keep quiet. Spacecrafts, aliens, visitors to Earth, it's been going on for years. The Universe is teeming with life, and the average person walking down the street doesn't think on it at all."

"Right." She said simply to fill in the moment of silence.

"And I get to come here, each day, and be amongst this magnificent collection of things from worlds away."

"And you catalogue it." She tried not to sound patronizing.

"Best job in the world." Adam said with a lift of his chin.

"Right. So, someone with a double … masters, or something, from … somewhere. Best job in the world for you is something my mate Shireen does after going through a foundations course?"

Adam looked gob smacked, and Rose tried her damnedest not to snicker. She may have smirked a little, but quickly tamed it down.

Adam shrugged, "Well, you see, Van Statten has agents. I was head hunted, remember? Anyway, agents all over the world looking for geniuses to recruit."

"And you're a genius?" She said, her smirk threatening to emerge once more.

"Sorry, but yeah. Can't help it, I was born clever."

"You were born something." Rose mumbled under her breath as she turned to look at other artifacts spread out on the work bench.

"When I was eight, I logged onto the US Defence System, nearly caused World War Three." He bragged with a glint in his eye and a smug grin on his face.

"What, and that's funny, is it?" She asked, furrowing her brow as she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

"Well you should've been there, just to see them running about! Fantastic!"

"Doesn't sound it to me." Rose replied as neutrally as she possibly could.

"Oh, but it was." He sobered. "But I suppose if you're with that Doctor bloke from UNIT, probably shouldn't be bragging about hacking the government." He chuckled, and Rose forced a smile. She tried to remember if she'd heard about it in passing, but it wasn't ringing any bells. Before she could think of something to deflect her lack of knowledge, Adam started looking shy. "So … is it just through work that you're with the Doctor? Or are you two …?"

She blinked, stunned silent for a moment before her brain finally caught up to what he was saying. "No, we're just friends." She replied, a wave of disappointment crashing on her as she said the words. But it was fine that they were just friends. And for the best, really. He had a bit of dark, mad streak about him, and she really didn't want to go down the road Jimmy once led her down.

Though the Doctor and Jimmy were two different creatures, literally and figuratively, and somewhere in her heart, she knew that.

"Good." Adam said with a firm nod.

"Why's it good?" Rose asked.

She regretted it the moment Adam beamed at her like she'd just promised him a date. "Just is." He said, attempting to sound relaxed and failing miserably.

Rose cleared her throat, inching away from him a slight bit.

"So, up here with these bits of metal and stuff, but there's an actual alien below. Must be a bit of a blow, not being able to work with him."

"Well, heard your Doctor saw it's dangerous, yeah? And we all know it is. The thing that happened a few years back? I still remember seeing it on the news, though it didn't get down here, obviously." Adam said a bit smugly. Then he got a mischievous look about him as he headed toward the computer on another work station. "Although, if you're a genius, it doesn't take long to patch into the comms system and watch the ones who _do_ get to work with it."

Rose followed him, a bit too curious in a morbid sort of way to see what was going on when it was thought no one was looking. Part of her didn't want to see it, not after the way the Doctor attempted to electrocute it. The Dalek had screamed in agony, but the Doctor didn't even flinch. But then, she also remembered him saying it had caused all kinds of trouble, of pain and suffering, and she wasn't so sure the Doctor was entirely in the wrong.

She was reminded of the Gelth, and how Gwyneth couldn't see how they were trying to use her. Perhaps, in a way, the Doctor's view was like hers but in the opposite way. He couldn't help but see that they Dalek would only be trouble, even if that may not be the case with this one.

Adam had the screen up, showing the Dalek in the room with the man in the haz-mat suit. The man was doing something to the Dalek that sounded a lot like drilling, and the high-pitched screams coming from the tin-can alien sounded far, far worse than anything the Doctor had been doing.

She cringed, wondering where the Doctor was and how he could possibly think this was a good idea. She remembered him saying it needed to be destroyed before it wiped out the planet, but wasn't there a more … humane way to go about it? Did the Dalek need to be in so much pain while it happened?

"Talk, and this stops." The man on the screen said as he paused his assault for a moment. When the Dalek remained silent, the man chuckled wickedly and went back to his torture.

"I can't … I can't handle this. I need to get down there and stop that." She said, turning away from the computer.

"But the Doctor said it needed to be destroyed." Adam said, smiling in confusion.

"Yeah, but I bet he didn't think it'd be tortured like that." She said over her shoulder as she made her way out the room and back down toward the cage.

* * *

 

It didn't sit well with the Doctor that Van Statten's armed guards followed them into the lift. Goddard, he could understand, but those men at their backs did nothing to make him assured this was merely going to be a discussion. He didn't think he'd be happy for Rose's decision to go off with the prat, but seeing where this was going, it was for the best.

"So, tell me, Doctor of UNIT, what's the outside of this Dalek, if what's inside is the actual creature?"

"It's battle armor." The Doctor replied, eyes on the gun nearest to him.

"And what's it look like?" Van Statten asked.

"Revolting. Like melted, putrid flesh of something that hadn't quite been formed before its creator gave up it. Which, I sometimes wonder if it wasn't actually they case. They were genetically engineered with every single emotion stripped away, all but hate, anyway. Hate for every and anything that isn't a Dalek or its creator."

Van Statten smirked. "Genetically engineered by whom?"

"His name was Davros, and he was a genius. The king of his own little world, much like you. Believed things should only ever be his way, damn the consequences. Just remember that the death and destruction he caused was not limited to one planet or race, and certainly not just to his time." The Doctor warned, hoping a stern gaze would wipe the smug grin off Van Statten's face. When it didn't work, he turned to Goddard. "How long has it been here?"

"It's been on Earth for over fifty years, sold at a private auction moving from one collection to another. It's never done anything since it's recovery from a crater in Ascension Islands. It screamed for three days, and I think people thought it'd gone insane."

"Be thankful it didn't. A Dalek sane is a bit mad."

"But why would it wake up now? Why is it such a threat?" She asked with genuine curiosity.

"I'm afraid because it came to life because I arrived. I have a history with the Daleks, one that goes back much further than I care to admit. And sadly, nothing spurs life back in to anything than facing down an old enemy."

"You said something about a war?" She asked kindly.

The Doctor smiled, "Ruthless when needed, but a gentle and understanding when it counts. You are going to go quite far, Diana Goddard. Yes, I mentioned a war. It was a battle, the final battle, really, between my people and the Dalek race. That creature fell through time somehow, hit by a temporal weapon or pushed through a portal of some sort. The only survivor."

"But you survived, too." Van Statten noted, trying to sound casual. Maybe he did to the average observer, but the Doctor knew better. He hadn't survived in this body for over a millennium by not being aware of his surroundings or people.

Slipping his hands in his leather jacket pockets, his fingers wrapped around the sonic screwdriver within. He thumbed the settings as he gave a casual shrug and a put on frown.

"It wasn't my intention. Well, I was hardly suicidal. But it wasn't my intention to be the _only_ survivor, apart from our friend there." He said, finding the setting and pushing the button on his device to disable the weapons.

The gentle whir of the sonic baffled Van Statten, and he looked to the lights accusingly. The guards didn't seem to notice anything, and they likely wouldn't until they went to fire only to find the clip jammed.

"This means," Van Statten said, returning his stare to the Doctor, "that the Dalek isn't the only alien on Earth, Doctor. There's you. The only one of your kind in existence."

"And I bet you're just itching to add me to your collection, aren't you?" The Doctor turned to face him, hands coming out of his pockets so he could cross his arms over his chest. "You want to run scans and tests, do everything but dissect me, then put me in a glass cage so you can admire me any time you wish. So you can claim you have an alien to those you discern to be worthy of the knowledge. But you see, Van Statten, I am the sole survivor of a war, and what do you think it takes to accomplish such a feat?" The lift chimed, and when the doors opened to reveal what the Doctor could only describe as another torture chamber, he wheeled around to look at Van Statten.

Fury moved through his veins, causing his fists to clench and his nostrils flare. A muscle in his jaw twitched, and Van Statten visibly recoiled.

"You are the worst kind of coward, aren't you?" He asked as he heard the guns click but not fire. "They say I am for running from the war, for refusing to fight. But you? Oh you march me down here to your little room for a little exploratory surgery. Want to learn what is different about, what sets a Time Lord apart from a human?" He stalked forward, seeing Goddard step between him and the guards in the corner of his eye while he focused on the quivering beast before him. "But you can't ask with polite curiosity, can you? No, you need to use what you learn for profit. I bet you don't just collective wonderful pieces of life beyond your atmosphere, you scavenge it."

"I … I found a few things, yeah."

"And what, exactly, did you think the Dalek could give you, huh?" The Doctor challenged. When Van Statten didn't answer, he shook his head. "I'm going to hazard a guess and say Military advancements. But not just the American government, your greed and ambition is too great for something so patriotic. Highest bidder, I'd wager."

He must have hit a nerve, as Van Statten sucked in a breath and looked quite put out.

"And what are you going to tell your little friends at UNIT, huh?" He said, jabbing the Doctor in his chest with a pointed finger. There was a flinch of pain that both the Doctor and Van Statten ignored as the latter ranted on. "Anything you _think_ you're going to walk out of here knowing is going to be wiped from your brain. In fact, I'd like to wager you're going to forget so much of what's happened you'll forget what your name even is."

"I'd love to see you try." The Doctor retorted.

"It can be quite easily arranged." Van Statten smiled smugly.

Before another word could be said between them, the overhead lights turned red and flashing, and a voice came over an intercom: "Condition red! Repeat, condition red! This is not a drill."

"Condition red?" The Doctor asked as Van Statten lost a bit of his coloring.

"It's the cage."

"The Dalek."

"Something's happened."

"As I knew it would. It found power somehow, and now we're in trouble."

"Nothing can escape the cage."

"Are you willing to put your life on the line with that knowledge?"

There was barely a pause.

"To my office, we can find out what's going on there." Van Statten said, turning to the elevators.

"Make it so," The Doctor said with a sigh, earning a quirk of an eyebrow from Goddard, but no reaction from the idiot that got them into this new and dangerous mess.

* * *

 

She imagined that Adam felt right impressive, flashing his level three badge around and claiming special access. Which, really, only proved more to Rose that he likely was too terrified to see what was actually inside "the cage" before this moment since he clearly could have at any point.

The Dalek's torturer refused to leave, assuming Rose and Adam needed protection. Maybe they would, she had seen how the Doctor reacted, heard what he said. But what was happening to it, the sounds it was making ….

"Hello?" Rose said to the Dalek, approaching slowly and keeping eye contact with the part of the top she assumed it saw with, the telescope bit that followed the Doctor about the room when he was in it. It seemed focused on her as well, which wasn't as odd as she may have found it a month ago. When the Dalek didn't say anything, she licked her lips and took a fortifying breath. "Are you in pain? My name's Rose Tyler, I'm a friend of the Doctor's, but I don't want to hurt you. Do you … do you have a name?"

"YES." It replied.

"What?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.

"I AM IN PAIN." It said quite slowly, it's voice crackling. "THEY TORTURED ME. BUT THEY STILL FEAR ME. DO YOU FEAR ME, FRIEND OF THE DOCTOR?"

She shook her head. "No." She said honestly.

It lowered its telescope thing as if trying to hang its head.

"I AM DYING."

"No, can't be." She said gently.

"I WELCOME DEATH. BUT I AM GLAD … THAT BEFORE I DIE … I MET A HUMAN WHO WAS NOT AFRAID."

Rose's heart twisted in agony. Maybe this Dalek wasn't like the others? Maybe he'd (or she, really) ran from the wars like the Doctor had, tried to find another way to end the feud without bloodshed. Perhaps the Doctor was blinded by hate and pain and poor memories and couldn't see this one was different.

"Isn't there anything I can do?" She asked softly, eyes stinging.

"MY RACE IS DEAD. I SHALL DIE ALONE." It said.

"No," She said, sniffing and making sure the tears in her eyes did not spill over. "No, not alone. I'm here, I'll be here with you." She said, giving it a said smile before reaching out to touch it on the top of its head.

"Rose, no!" Adam yelled, but her hand was already on the warm metal surface.

And then it was hot enough to burn, and remembering hearing the last person to touch it caught fire, she pulled her hand back immediately. It was red and sore, like she'd stuck her hand in a hot pan, but nothing worse.

There was a hand print on the shell where she'd touched, and it seemed as if the Dalek was coming back to life from her kindness.

"GENETIC MATERIAL EXTRAPOLATED, INITIATE CELLULAR RECONSTRUCTION!"

The chains around the Dalek began to snap as its body seemed to partly repair itself before their eyes, sparks flying in the process.

"What the hell have you done?" The Dalek's torturer demanded, shoving Rose back where she landed against Adam's chest. The stumbled back, and he grabbed her arms to steady her as they watched the haz-mat clad man approach the restored mini-tank. "What are you gonna do? Sucker me to death?" He asked it mockingly.

His scream of surprise was cut off by the plunger like part of the Dalek as it suctioned itself to his face. As Adam turned Rose around to run from room, the sound of bones crunching halted any cries the former torture might have made.

The door slammed shut behind them, and another man who was at the controls and monitors got on the PA and sounded the alarm.

"Is this all that can be done?" Rose asked.

"We can't do anything else," The Man retorted as they waited to hear from someone of a higher authority.

In a space of time that felt like hours and seconds at once, the Doctor, Van Statten, and Miss Goddard appeared on the screen.

"What's happened?" The Doctor asked.

"It's my fault." Rose confessed immediately, keeping her emotions in check as best she could between the panic, fear, and pain all struggling against the agony of possibly disappointing the Doctor in this. "I felt sorry for it. I wanted to comfort it when it was dying, I didn't know I could …."

"Rose, none of this is your fault, even if you were somehow the catalyst." The Doctor reassured.

"Says you." Van Statten snapped. "Anything that happens is on you, crumpet."

"No," The Doctor said through clinched teeth. "Anything that happens is on _you_ , Van Statten, for having that thing here alive in the first place."

"I've sealed the compartment," the man at the controls spoke up. "It can't get out. The lock's got a billion combinations."

"The Dalek's a genius, a real one. It can calculate a trillion combinations in a second. You all need to get out of there now. Don't wait for anything, just go." The Doctor locked eyes on Rose, pleading with her through them.

"We should wait until the guards get here," Adam said, putting a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. It was oddly comforting considering everything that happened and just how obnoxious he was before. But his genuine fear and concern showed Rose a bit of what she hoped was the real Adam.

"Alright." She said with a nod.

"Rose," The Doctor urged her, and she turned back to him.

"Thing gets out, Doctor, pretty defenseless down here. Least with a guard we might have protection, yeah?"

The Doctor seemed torn for a moment before relenting. "Okay, wait for the guard."

"Make sure they know not to actually kill it." Van Statten said to the guy at the controls. "Disarm it, subdue it, do what you have to to render it useless again. I want it alive."

"So you can torture it again?" Rose asked the heavy tread of running soldiers reached her ears and grew louder.

"I want information." Van Statten said, eyeing the Doctor with a near lustful expression.

"De Maggio," The guy at the controls said as soon as the footsteps stopped. There was a click, and the doors to the cage began to open. "Take the civilians and get them out alive. That is your job, got that?"

One of the guards, a woman, nodded once and turned to Rose and Adam. "You two, with me."

Rose didn't have to be told twice, and without looking back, she took off with the guard.

* * *

 

Seeing her leave had filled the Doctor with both relief and unease. He hated not seeing for himself that she was alright, but as the Dalek escaped the cage and came toward the monitor from which they were able to communicate with, he was glad she was there to witness everything else that was happening.

The guards fled when it became apparent that nothing was going to stop it, and the Dalek had smashed the two-way monitor, causing Diana to tap into the security system to monitor what was happening.

"We're losing power, it's draining the base." She said, a nervous crack to her otherwise business-toned voice.

 _Wait for it_ , the Doctor thought to himself with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"It's raiding the power supplies for the whole of Utah." She said, a bit more shocked now.

 _There we go_.

"Sir, the entire West Coast has gone down."

"That's because it's downloading all the information it can get. Not just from this base, it's accessing Earth's Internet, draining it of all the information, probably in an attempt to find other Daleks. It likely doesn't believe it's the only one to survive."

Diana and Van Statten exchanged looks of concern.

"What is it?" The Doctor asked.

"Well, it's just that, well, a few years ago there was the battle of Canary Wharf. There were the Ghosts."

"Cybermen," The Doctor corrected absentmindedly, recalling the display in the main exhibit.

"And the Metaltrons, or the Daleks. It was quite heavy in Europe, here less so. But there was news coverage, and while it all happened in a span of …."

"Don't say. Don't tell me." The Doctor cut her off. He took a deep breath. "So the Dalek will see that there were, not long ago, other Daleks on Earth. But the thing is, the Daleks could have come here from any point in their time line, and it would know that. Seeing them here even months ago will mean nothing if there are no other Daleks to communicate with now that it has the ability to."

"Sir, the cameras in the vault have gone down." Diana said when the Doctor paused.

"So there is only emergency power left, then. I'm sorry, but you have to destroy it now before it gets out, and it will."

Diana looked to Van Statten who remained quiet, staring off into space. When he didn't seem to want to issue a command, she got on the communicator and gave an order.

"All guards converge in the Metaltron cage, immediately."

"Let's just hope that whatever fire power your guards have, it will be enough."

* * *

 

Every single soldier that moved to face the Dalek was dead. And the Dalek, of course, sustained no damage at all. Bullets melted before it even made it near the shell. And Van Statten … he called them _dispensable_. The Doctor had never been more disgusted with anything in his entire life. In that moment, the Dalek was the second worse thing in the bunker.

With fists clenched, he asked Diana as calmly as he could after she should him where the Dalek happened to be within the compound, "Are there any alien weapons in the museum?"

"Lots of them," she said softly. "But the Dalek is between us and them."

"We've got to keep that thing alive." Van Statten said firmly. "We could seal the entire vault, trap it down there.

"And what good would keeping it alive do you if you have to explain to hundreds of families why their mothers, fathers, sons, daughters aren't ever coming home? How is it going to help you when you have to detail why an alien life form whose whole purpose in life is to kill and destroy was worth saving and the human beings who work for you are _dispensable_." He sneered at the idiot man. "And if you think for one moment, even a microsecond, that I am leaving Rose locked up with it you are going to wish you had never encountered me."

"You don't scare me, Doctor. If you were really as high up in UNIT as you claim, if any of this was really a problem, then we'd have been dealing with them right now instead of this. And since you're an expert, and an alien yourself with past dealings with the Dalek, why not just reason with it? It must be willing to negotiate. There must be something it needs, everything needs something."

"Of course there is something it needs: to kill. It honestly doesn't care what you have to offer it, it wants you dead and that is that. If Daleks could be reasoned with, would I really be standing her before you, the last of my kind? Don't you think that my people would have _reasoned_ or _negotiated_ to avoid a war that spanned nearly the entire Universe? Time itself was altered, whole races and planets wiped from existence. But you're absolutely right, Van Statten. We should have all say down, had a cuppa tea and some biscuits and chatted about how life would be better if we all just got along.

"You're a fool to think that you'll somehow buy your way out of this, a fool to think that if you do get out you'll somehow remain unscathed, and the absolute worst kind of human for believing you can toss away someone's life because you give them a paycheck." The Doctor turned back to the screen as he huffed. He narrowed his eyes, tracing the path the Dalek was going to take. "What are is this?"

"Weapons testing," Diana replied.

"Okay, spread the word: everyone, absolutely everyone, needs a weapon. I don't care if they are a soldier or the janitor, they need to be armed if they want even the smallest hope of surviving an encounter with the Dalek. Pass on the word with the soldiers, with all of them, that there is a force field around the Dalek, but not to be discouraged. If enough bullets hit the same spot, perhaps it will somehow weaken the force field enough to let one bullet pass through. One may be all it takes."

* * *

 

It had wanted them to see. By Rassilon it was more twisted and sadistic than even the cult of Skaro at the height of the war. It purposely re-rooted power just to put on a show, to prove how powerless they all were. It hadn't even killed all those soldiers by normal means, instead using the sprinkler systems and electrocuting all but two. And those two didn't even make it out.

His hearts pounded, and he stopped breathing. He managed to check the screen, a quick glance in its direction to ensure the two dots that were Rose and the young man with her were till moving as quickly as they could away from the Dalek, even as its blue light followed at a steady pace.

"Perhaps it's time for a new strategy." Van Statten's voice broke the silence, calm on the surface but with a hint of hysteria underneath. "Maybe we should consider abandoning this place?"

"Except there's no power to the helipad, _sir._ " Diana seethed quietly. "We can't get out."

"You're right, we can't. And I imagine if there is no power to the helipad, there's no way to seal the vault, either?"

Diana shook her head. "The bulkheads are massive, there's not enough power."

"But we can re-route the power we have, can't we? It's not like you're going to need emergency lighting on the lower levels. If someone was lucky enough to survive, the can continue to do so without light for a little while. At least until we can figure out how best to figure out a solution to the problem."

"We'd have to bypass the security codes," Diana said with a shake of her head. "That would take a computer genius."

"Good thing you've got me, then." Van Statten piped up, his egotistical attitude back in play.

"Oh, now you want to be part of the solution?" The Doctor mocked.

"I don't want to die, Doctor, simple as that. Nobody knows this software better than me."

"Except perhaps the alien race you stole it from." The Doctor quipped. When Van Statten glared back, he laid on the mock surprise thick. "You mean you thought of something all on your own? Didn't have to hijack the tech from Epsalor 12 to get your digital clock going?"

Before anything could be heard from Van Statten, the monitors brought up the image of the Dalek.

"Sir," Diana said, looking at him this time when she gave the title.

The Doctor's lips twitched in a smirk before he stepped up beside her to see what the Dalek was up to.

"I SHALL SPEAK ONLY TO THE DOCTOR."

"Well, I'm listening." He replied.

"I FED OFF THE DNA OF ROSE TYLER. EXTRAPOLATING THE BIOMASS OF A TIME TRAVELLER REGENERATED ME."

"Yes, I imagine it did. So what now? I know you search the databases on Earth for any sign of your fellows. Have any luck?"

"NO. THERE IS NOTHING. I AM ALONE. WHERE SHALL I GET MY ORDERS?"

"There are no more orders to be given. The war is over. We lost. You no longer have a purpose." He hoped, deep down, that this would encourage the Dalek into some sort of surrender. He knew the chances were slim, but he truly hoped it would be the case.

"I SHALL FOLLOW THE PRIMARY ORDER, THE DALEK INSTINCT TO DESTROY! TO CONQUER!"

"Then I shall follow what's become mine, to stop you. Whatever it takes, you will not leave this base, you will not make it above ground. By Rassilon, you will not harm anyone else."

The Dalek stared, then the screen cut off.

"Let's seal the vaults, now, before it has a chance to come up with some means of escape."

The Doctor shrugged off the leather jacked and sat down, getting to work on a computer by Van Statten. They were silent except for Van Statten's occasional mutter of glee at the thrill. The Doctor kept his mouth shut, knowing if he were to comment he'd be too focused on verbally lashing out then getting the work that needed to be done complete.

"Looks like the power's rerouted and ready to seal the vaults at the push of a button." The Doctor said, looking to Diana. "I need a phone, I should call Rose's mobile and see where she is."

"It looks like she and Adam Mitchell are on level forty-nine." Diana replied.

"The bulkheads are set to close at forty-six." He said as he got up and took the headset from Diana, then the handset to dial Rose's number. It rang as he watched her progress on the screen.

"This isn't the best time." Rose answered.

"Never is when you're on the run, is it? We're sealing off the doors at level forty-six, and you need to keep moving. The Dalek's catching up, and it will find away through if there is even the slightest gap available to it."

"Right, 'kay." She replied with a bit of a pant.

He watched the screen, seeing Rose and Adam maintaining pace, but the Dalek gaining on them. He could hear her footsteps on the stairs as she moved as swiftly as she could.

"You're close, Rose, keep going." He encouraged with a smile.

Then he heard the click of a key compressing on a keyboard, and the smile faded. Turning slowly, not wanting to believe he would see what he was expecting, the Doctor met Van Statten's eye as he lifted his finger from the _enter_ key on the keyboard.

"What. Have. You. Done?" The Doctor asked.

"Doctor?" Rose asked, worried.

"Keep going, Rose." He said as he stalked toward Van Statten. "Now I ask again, _Henry_ , what have you done?"

"I'm sealing the bulkheads."

"There weren't there yet!"

"The power was starting to fail and we need to keep that thing away from here!"

"Doctor!" Rose's voice came panicked through the headset. He heard Adam in the background, calling for Rose to hurry. The Doctor turned to the screen and watched the dots moving, the one in the lead putting more and more distance between it and the one in the middle, the Dalek's indicator closing in.

"Come on. Come on, come on, come on." The Doctor said quietly to himself, anxiously, scared to ask Rose anything.

The dot in the middle stopped just as Van Statten announced the vault was sealed.

"Rose?" The Doctor ventured to ask.

She was panting, and he hoped that she was catching her breath in safety.

"Sorry, I was a bit slow." She said softly.

He didn't even know his knees gave out until they hit the ground. One heart seemed lodged in his throat as the other one dropped into his stomach before both shattered in a pain so acute it was as if he was reliving the loss of the Time Lords.

"No." He finally managed to gasp out.

"'S alright, Doctor. It's not your fault. Remember that, okay? It wasn't your fault." She took a breath, though it was shaky. "And do you know what? I wouldn't have missed it for the world."

He took a couple deep breaths. "I'm going to be with you, okay Rose? I'm right there, with you to the end." He stopped breathing, a dozen thoughts running through his head. He didn't know what to make of half of them, some reminding him so much of Charley that it was painful, and yet this seemed so much worse.

She didn't say anything, and he closed his eyes, trying to picture her smiling that cheeky grin with her tongue sticking out. He recalled her eyes, full of warmth and life and everything that made Rose so magnificent.

"EXTERMINATE!" He heard the Dalek cry, and the death ray firing.

He covered his face with his hands, feeling the tears behind his shut eye lids as his head fell forward. He wanted to cry but felt he couldn't. He wanted to turn around and rip Van Statten limb from limb but knew it wouldn't bring Rose back.

He wanted to go down and meet the Dalek head on and let it wipe him out with the rest of the Time Lords. The rest could suffer in another Universe, for all he cared.

"Go on then, kill me." Rose's voice had him whipping his head up so fast a part of his brain was surprised he didn't get whip lash. His hands came away from his face and he stared at the little Rose dot as his hearts picked up speed. "Why are you doing this?"

"I AM ARMED, I WILL KILL. IT IS MY PURPOSE." The Dalek's voice, quieter than normal from the distance, was still distinct enough that every strange word could be heard.

"They're all dead because of you." Rose snapped. Wonderful, vivacious, _living, breathing_ Rose.

"THEY ARE DEAD BECAUSE OF US." It retorted.

"No," The Doctor said to himself, shaking his head. "Don't put this on her."

"And now what? What're you waiting for?" Rose asked it.

"I FEEL YOUR FEAR." It replied, and the Doctor was on his feet in a hearts beat. He still stared at the dot though he was aware of Van Statten and Diana staring at him.

"What do you expect?" Rose demanded.

"Dalek's don't have fear." The Doctor said as the Dalek replied in essentially the same way. His mind was racing fast enough that he heard but didn't acknowledge the sounds of the death rays, especially after hearing Rose's yelps of surprise.

"YOU GAVE ME LIFE. WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU GIVEN ME? I AM CONTAMINATED!"

"It's mutating." The Doctor said. "It's not Dalek anymore, not if it has emotions. What is it, then? And … and can it be helped? Would it want to be?"

He wasn't expecting anyone to answer, so when none came, he wasn't put off.

The doors to the lift in the corner opened, and Adam stepped out with nary a care it seemed.

"And how do you feel, Mister Mitchell, knowing you left a young woman to her death?" The Doctor asked him.

Adam looked up, frowning indignantly. "I wasn't the one who sealed the vault," He retorted.

"No, that honor goes to your boss. But lucky for both of you, Rose is still alive."

Adam's eyebrows show to his hairline, and Van Statten looked a bit too frightened by this outcome for the Doctor's liking.

The screen that he'd been watching intensely with the indicators flickered and changed to an image of Rose beside the Dalek. Removing the ear piece and handing it back to Diana, the Doctor walked toward the screen to greet them.

"Hello." He said warmly with a smile.

"Hey yourself." Rose replied.

"OPEN THE BULKHEAD OR ROSE TYLER DIES." The Dalek attempted to threaten.

"Oh, well, we can't have that, now, can we? She's a one of a kind." The Doctor said, turning away and heading to the keyboard. A couple passes on the keyboard, and the doors started opening.

"What did you do that for, you bleeding heart? What the hell do we do now?" Van Statten asked.

"Kill it when it gets here!" Adam said firmly.

"Do you all remember how I said how much I hated violence? No, probably not, I don't think all of you were around when I mentioned that earlier." The Doctor said as he picked up his jacket and pulled it back on. "But I do, truly. I can be vicious when I need to be, and I can't say I don't have any blood on my hands, because that is quite far removed from the truth. But I did win the war against the Daleks, and I did so by being clever. And I think … I think that it's time I win another battle with wits over weapons." He looked to Diana. "No matter what either of these buffoons say, you're in charge."

And with that, he left the office to meet up with Rose and the Dalek.

* * *

 

Freedom, that's all it wanted. Freedom.

The lift only went up as far as Van Statten's office, and when the Doctor wasn't there, the Dalek started to lash out.

But it didn't kill.

Because she asked it not to.

And when Rose asked what it wanted, really wanted, now that it didn't have to kill anymore as its only way of life, it came up with one answer.

Freedom.

They walked down the corridor toward the helipad, directions given by the Goddard woman. Well, she walked, it glided or whatever Daleks do.

She was only partly surprised to see the Doctor waiting for her there, arms at his sides with no weapon to be seen. He gave her a gentle smile, and without even considering what might happen, she gladly ran to his side.

"Hello," She said to him, tongue between her teeth.

His grin grew wider, warmer, happier. "Hello." He replied.

"How'd you know we'd be here?" She asked.

The Doctor looked up, eyes focused on the Dalek as it's eye stalk turned toward the ceiling.

"I was still on the line when you and the Dalek began talking about it changing. It took on your DNA, after all, and it's being mutated by everything that makes you … you."

The Dalek shot a hole into the ceiling but remained where it was as the sunlight from above flooded over it.

"Never thought I'd see the sunlight again." She confessed, both to the Doctor and the Dalek who tried to kill her.

"HOW DOES IT FEEL?" It asked, curiously and broken.

There was a hiss, and the Dalek's shell opened up.

There was something incredibly sad about the small creature inside. Like a squid or something that was never fully developed. It's singular eye squinted at the light, and it moved as if it was trying to absorb all the warmth from it it could.

"WHY DID WE SURVIVE?" It asked.

"Because fate can be a cruel mistress." The Doctor replied. "I wanted nothing to do with the Time Lords, and now … I'm the only one left."

"I AM THE LAST OF THE DALEKS." It replied.

"You're not even that, anymore. You're changing."

"INTO WHAT?"

"Something new." The Doctor replied regretfully.

"I CAN FEEL SO MANY IDEAS. IT IS … TORTURE."

Rose frowned, and she turned toward the Doctor. "Torture? Isn't changing a good thing?"

"Not for a Dalek." He said gently, shaking his head.

"ROSE … GIVE ME ORDERS! ORDER ME TO DIE!" It asked her, and her heart clenched.

"I can't do that." She said, shaking her head.

"DOCTOR?" The Dalek asked.

He met Rose's eye, and she could see he didn't want this anymore than she did. She could see the hope for something she didn't understand die as he stepped away from her and moved to stand before the Dalek.

She watched as he didn't try to shield himself, walking into what could have been a trap without any fear for himself.

"You're relieved of duty, soldier." He said simply.

The Dalek seemed to give a sigh of relief. "ARE YOU FRIGHTENED, ROSE TYLER?" It asked, surprising her a bit.

"Yeah," She replied honestly.

"SO AM I. EXTERMINATE."

It wasn't the cry she'd heard it shout throughout the day, but a surrender with words.

The Doctor stepped back and returned to her side, slipping his hand in hers and stepping just a bit in front of her as if to shield her.

The Dalek replaced its armor before levitating a few feet above the ground. The knobs that had surrounded most of its body came loose, floating away from it and forming a sphere around it. There was a flicker of light, than a bright flash, and then nothing.

They stared at the spot where it had been, silent for a moment.

"I am never, ever letting you wander off again." He eventually said, breaking the silence with something that sounded so ridiculous for the moment that Rose laughed so she wouldn't cry. The Doctor chuckled, letting go of her hand and pulling her toward him, clutching her close so her cheek was pressed against his chest.

She didn't mind. Even if he was a bit cooler than she'd like, he smelled wonderful and she hadn't felt this safe in an embrace since she was a child. She could feel his nose bury itself in her hair and take a deep breath, causing her cheeks to turn the color of her namesake and a stupid grin to stretch so wide she had to bit her lip to make it stop.

"Where'd be the fun in that?" She asked as her arms wound themselves around his waist.

He didn't say anything, and she didn't think she needed to fill the silence, either. She simply remained content in his arms, listening to the speedy rhythm of his double heartbeat and willed her own to slow down to normal.

* * *

 

They walked back to the TARDIS hand in hand, Rose leaning on his arm a bit more than he would have expected, but he didn't mind. A part of him never wanted to let her go, and if she wanted to press herself into his side, all the power to her, as far as he was concerned.

As the TARDIS came into view, the sound of footsteps running toward them echoed from the other end of the exhibit room. The Doctor looked up, continuing his stride as he watched Adam Mitchell coming toward them with a bag slung on his back.

"I'm glad I found you two," He panted as the three of them stopped in front of the big blue box. The TARDIS groaned quietly in something the Doctor swore might have been disgust. He frowned at the Old Girl, then turned to the young man half bent over and panting in front of them.

"Why do you say that?" The Doctor asked him as he pulled his key from his pocket.

"Because …." Adam panted, bending over long enough for the Doctor to fit the key in the lock and turn it. "Because Van Statten's disappeared, and Goddard's been on the phone with UNIT. Going to fill the bunker full of cement, like it never existed."

The Doctor looked around the room. "I suppose there's nothing in here that UNIT hasn't had a bit of a hand in or had information on. And if they're the ones filling it, they may just search the place first."

"For the best, yeah?" Rose asked.

"Most certainly." The Doctor agreed. "I never got to look at the weapons Van Statten supposedly collected, let alone the ones that were catalogued. One of those ended up in the wrong hands, the results could be catastrophic."

"What about the families? Of those who died?" Rose asked, looking between Adam and the Doctor.

"Van Statten had a clause written in our contracts, pays off the family so they don't ask a lot of questions." A thoughtful expression came over Adam. "So many people died, he'd probably be bankrupt or near enough by the end. Not to mention all of us who are losing our jobs. Severance and all that." A smile pulled at his lips before he frowned. "I'll have to go home."

The Doctor studied him before reaching delicately for his time line. It seemed there were two distinct possibilities for the young man with many, many outcomes for both. He could be ruthless, taking after a man he would never admit to viewing as a mentor. Or he could be kind and thoughtful, an attempt to emulate Rose in order to win her over or possibly someone else. Either fate could happen should he step on the TARDIS or not.

The TARDIS groaned again as the Doctor came to a decision.

"I suppose we could give you a lift. That is, if you want to see some real alien tech in action." The Doctor grinned, opening the door and allowing Rose to step in first.

Adam hesitated, then stepped in past the Doctor into the TARDIS.

"Blimey, it's bigger on the inside!"

The words were like a soothing balm on the Doctor's soul that warmed his hearts, and he entered the ship and closed the door.

"Have a gander, nothing's off limits really." The Doctor said as he moved to the controls to get them into the vortex before the UNIT techs showed up and spotted the TARDIS.

Adam ventured down below to look at the engines, and the Doctor had the decency to wait until he could no longer hear Adam on the stairs before throwing the lever and sending them into the vortex.

He would never admit he chuckled to himself at the sound of Adam's stumble and cursing.

"Doctor," Rose said quietly behind him, and he turned around to look at her. She was twisting her fingers, chewing he lip, and the look made his hearts sink.

"What's wrong, Rose?" He asked.

"Well, 's just. I got thinking, with what Adam said. And I was thinking … well, wondering if, umm."

He stepped up to her, gently cupping her cheek and cause her eyes to snap to his.

"What is it?" He asked, trying to discern whether she just happened to twist her head away from him a little more or actually leaned into his touch.

She sighed. "I want to go home."

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't honestly feel that an Eight who lived the Time War and did so without intentionally destroying anyone would not have as quite a violant reaction to the Dalek as Nine did. I truly believe that while Eight would throw the switch, his better nature would think better of it when recalling the Dalek was (at the time) helpless. I love Nine so very much, and he and Eight are always swapping spots as my favorite and second favorite Doctor, but they are different men because they have different experiences.
> 
> Until next update, in which I will be drawing inspiration from one of my favorite Nine novels, though not copying the adventure exactly.


	10. The Geminus Invasion

"Home?" The Doctor said, and the devastation in his eyes tipped Rose off immediately that he took it the wrong way.

"Not … not for good." She hastened to reassure him as his hand fell from her cheek. She gently held him by his shoulders, smiling wide as the pain morphed into confusion. "'S just, before the bunker, the TARDIS told me it was 'bout a month since I've been home. I've been wearing borrowed clothes, and haven't even told my Mum I was heading off traveling. Plus there are, umm, other things I need to worry about that will likely come up. Feminine things and the like."

The Doctor stared gob smacked before he threw back his head and laughed, deep and hearty. He pulled her in for a quick, tight hug that she gladly returned even if she was a bit confused by what was happening.

"Rose, I'm over a thousand years old, and you already know I traveled with a granddaughter. Female biology is essentially the same across species so when it comes to _that_ I am confident that the TARDIS can provide. But as for a visit home … I honestly can't see why we can't do that. Admittedly, it's not something I typically do unless it's the end of our journey together, but I can make an exception. And I'm sure you would want to have your own things as well."

"And my Mum, don't forget about telling her." Rose reminded him.

"Right, but you remember that we updated your phone ages ago, you could have called and told her, you know." He reminded her.

It had been after a slight issue when visiting an asteroid market. It wasn't so much that Rose wandered off than the Doctor had. He spotted a part he required and took off, thinking Rose had known where he was heading and finding out a bit too late that she'd been focused on an alien gizmo of some sort. She had no way of contacting him, and vice versa. He eventually found her when the local authority set out a broadcast for the owner of the human female to pick up their pet, and decided to do some jiggery-poke to give her literal universal roaming without a phone bill.

"Not quite the same though, yeah? Calling her up and saying I'd gone traveling with a bloke, and not even bothering with my passport?"

"Oh yes, you humans and your endless need for documentation. The psychic paper was probably the best thing I could have ever picked up, really. Saves me a lot of trouble."

"Can't just wave your fancy UNIT badge around?" She teased.

He smiled. "UNIT didn't always exist, did it? But nearly every era requires papers for this thing or that."

"True enough." She agreed. "Right, so."

"Yes," he said, turning away and heading to the controls. He did his little dance about, making Rose smile even if it was more to herself with the sight of it. "Adam? Hold on down there. Going to get rough."

He threw the switch, and if Rose hadn't had the railing right behind her to grab on to, she would have already found herself on the floor. There was an undignified, masculine sounding yelp from somewhere below, followed by a few curses as the ship lurched again in the opposite direction.

The Doctor looked confused by the rougher-than-normal flight, then frowned as the lights in the column flickered as if the time ship was laughing.

"Behave." The Doctor said to the column in the middle, and the flight smoothed out immediately.

Nerves bubbled up in Rose as they landed, and she was suddenly not so sure coming back was a good idea.

The Doctor groaned, and she chewed her lip as she came up beside him. He was studying the screen and muttering something in a language the TARDIS wouldn't translate before meeting her gaze a little sheepishly. "It appears we have landed about a month after you originally left, perhaps a month and a week."

"My mum's gonna kill me. Five weeks? Been gone five weeks and I never left word with her? Bloody hell, this'll be Jimmy all over again. Only worse, ran away with an alien this go around."

"You run away with men frequently, do you?" The Doctor asked, his lips curling in amusement.

"Not really," She said back as Adam came up and joined them. "Oh, this is gonna be a nightmare."

"I'm sure it'll be fine." The Doctor assured, dropping an arm around her shoulders and guiding her to the doors. "You're right back to where you came from, only later than you expected. And really, it could be worse, you could be a year late."

She laughed at the absurdity that would follow being gone a year without word, allowing the Doctor open the doors from her and bring her outside.

She stepped into the alley where they'd originally ran away together, seeing things remaining relatively the same, though the graffiti was cleaned up. After taking a few tentative steps toward the mouth of the alley, she took in the sight of the estates as it came into view.

The sky was blue, hardly a cloud for once. The air was warmer than it had been, but then again that was to be expected. There were kids running about, so school was either on break or out for the day.

"All seems so normal." She noted, sensing the Doctor coming up beside her, Adam somewhere behind her. "I've been all over the Universe, and here, now, everything's the same. Feels more alien than anything I experienced out there."

"Where are we?" Adam asked.

"Powell Estates." Rose replied without turning around.

"Right." Adam replied, "Right, I mean. Yeah, of course. I just … just didn't recognize it, is all."

"Why would you?" The Doctor asked, genuinely curious sounding. Rose looked up at him as he turned to look at Adam. "Your accent suggestions you come from a more affluent part of the city. You're, what? Twenty-six? So right now, on this day, there is a nineteen-year-old Adam Mitchell in school. Oxford, I'm guessing."

"Wait," Adam said, and Rose turned to see his eyes bulging. "Nineteen? Which makes this 2005. I'm … I'm in the past."

"Not too distant past, no. Nothing like going back to 1869." The Doctor replied.

Adam chuckled, gave a hoot of deep laughter, and promptly passed out.

Rose stared at him, mouth opening and closing as everything she thought to say vanished in her dumbstruck state.

The Doctor clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Amateur. Really, I should have seen he'd be green at the thought of time travel, even just small jumps like this one. Still, no use standing around waiting for him to come back to the world of the living. He'd probably be less embarrassed if you weren't here to remind him of this minor emasculation. Especially when I tell him how well you took your first trip."

"Right. You remember where the flat is?"

"Number 48, Bucknall Hall." He nodded.

"'Kay. Wish me luck." She said, pulling up all her courage to run to the flat.

The whole way up the stairs, she mauled over what she was going to say to her mum when she arrived a month after disappearing. With a bloke. Again. And hadn't she sworn she learned her lesson regarding Jimmy? That she'd grown up since making that first, life altering mistake.

She fit her key in the lock, giving it a turn and surrendering herself to the tongue lashing she was about to get.

"Oh? Back already? Wasn't expecting you." Her Mum said as she stood in the middle of the living room folding laundry.

"Wha?" Rose asked, stunned in the doorway.

"Close the door, would ya? Not all of us have fancy government jobs that provide room and board." Jackie retorted, frowning and waving a hand for Rose to shut the door. "Though thought something like that would have you puttin' on more airs and graces than appears you have. They let you run about like that? Denims and sweats?"

Rose looked down at her clothes, including her grubby trainers, and then remembered she had yet to close the door.

"Right. Mum?" She started as the door clicked shut and she came further into the room. "What are you on about? What job? Why aren't you freakin' out?"

"Why would I be?" She retorted, setting a folded towel aside. "Called the day after all the shop dummies went mad, and don't tell me it didn't happen, 'cause it did, and no agency's gonna tell me otherwise. Anyway, you said that the agent there, the Doctor or whatever, hired you to be his partner or something. I still think he was more interested in something else, but you said nothing was going on so I suppose I'm gonna have to believe you, though you didn't need to break it off with Mickey."

"Did that just to save my sanity," Rose mumbled under her breath. "Right," she said a little louder, looking about the flat and at her mum who waited expectantly for something. "So, agent with the Doctor, yeah. Umm, all sorta … top secret and stuff. Has Mickey said anything about what went on, or …?"

Jackie rolled her eyes. "Just that the Doctor bloke was actually and alien which meant you were actually abducted by aliens or some sort rubbish. But then he's gettin' that new job, yeah?"

"New job? Not at the garage anymore?" Rose said, crossing her arms.

"Well, part-time. Nights and weekends. Said something about wanting to save up for a better flat or car, or something. He wants to do right by you, Rose. I don't see why you can't just …."

A knock on the door interrupted Jackie, and Rose turned and opened it to reveal the Doctor and Adam standing outside. The latter looked a bit pale, and the former amused.

"Finally got your wits about ya?" She asked Adam with a teasing grin.

"He hasn't said much since he's come around to be honest." The Doctor replied. "Doesn't help that no sooner did he come around he happened to notice someone he went to school with in about two years leaving one of the other buildings."

"That him? That the Doctor?" Jackie asked, setting aside her towels. "Well let your boss in, will ya? Might let you go if you keep him waiting."

"Rose doesn't have to worry about that," The Doctor said as Rose stepped aside and waved them in. The Doctor approached Jackie with a hand extended and one of his most charming smiles. "And I don't think of myself as her boss. If anything, Rose is my partner."

Rose flushed with satisfaction at that, turning her head to hide her smile even as she tried to suck it into her mouth to prevent anyone from seeing it.

"Well," Jackie said, smiling that flirty grin that made Rose's stomach turn. "Didn't think she would be much more than an assistant of some sort."

"No, no, Rose is excellent at the work we do."

"Which is?"

The Doctor only hesitated for the briefest of moments, and if Rose hadn't been with him nearly every waking moment of her day since she boarded the TARDIS a month ago, she wouldn't have known he had stalled for time. "UNIT." The Doctor replied. "Unfortunately, it's all quite confidential. But I will say we work a lot with victims of war, and Rose is amazing."

"Oh," Jackie virtually swooned, and Rose rolled her eyes.

"Right, was just coming by to let you know what I was up to," Rose started.

"Which you can't tell me anything about," Jackie interrupted.

"And to get my clothes. Been sorta living off of bored clothes and such. Kinda want my own things." She said, popping down the hall. Grabbing a back pack, she went about stuffing it with things, and quickly finding that one wasn't going to be enough.

A gentle rap on the door frame had her looking over her shoulder and smiling at the Doctor as he leaned in the doorway. "I have something for you."

"You do?" Rose asked.

He pushed off the door and pulled something out of his jacket pocket. He took the fabric square and shook it out until it turned into a small bag no bigger than an over-sized purse. "Open it up." He said as he handed it over to her, a self-satisfied, extremely smug gleam in his eye as she took it.

Rose took it with trepidation, eyeing him cautiously as if he was the type of man who would put some sort of prank together with the bag. She opened the zip, peered inside, and thought it looked off. Reaching her hand inside, she nearly fell forward as her arm went all the way in to the shoulder. She looked at him, eyes wide and mouth agape. "It's … bigger … on the … blimey that's amazing!" She laughed to herself as she put the bag on the bed.

"Time Lord technology," The Doctor shrugged as Rose removed everything from her backpack and began to load up the time lord bag. "You should also know that your mother is in the living room with Adam, asking how he came to work with us, and if maybe there is something more going on between the pair of you."

"There's not," Rose groaned. "Not gonna be, either. Gives me the creeps."

The Doctor chuckled, "I think he's just enthusiastic. Pretty girl giving a young man like him the time of day? Bound to make him a bit determined to catch your attention."

"Right, well, not my type I guess." Rose mumbled as she looked about her room, moving around and throwing things in her bag. "You know, when I left with you before it was spur of the moment. All this stuff coming with me? Means I'm signing on. You're stuck with me."

"Stuck with you? That's not so bad." The Doctor replied with a shrug.

Rose stopped, a stuffed bear from her childhood hovering just over the bag as she turned to look at him. "Yeah?"

"Yes," he grinned.

Rose felt her cheeks heating up and she quickly turned away. Utter giddiness had her squealing inside, her lips pulling upward in spite of herself.

 _This is different,_ she told herself. _I didn't run off with him blindly, thinking I was in love. Might be a bit infatuated with 'im now, but that's different._

She pulled the zip shut on her bag, picking it up and trying not to let on to the Doctor how surprised she was by the lightness of it. His chuckle as they stepped into the hallway told her she failed.

"Who the bloody hell are you!?" Mickey's voice stopped Rose short for a moment before she and the Doctor came down the hall a bit quicker than it seemed either intended.

When they entered the living room, Jackie was merely rolling her eyes and shaking her head. Adam was standing with his hands up, and Mickey looked intimidating for the first time in his life as he was all but in Adam's face.

"He works for us." The Doctor said, causing both Adam and Mickey to look at him in confusion. "New recruit, trainee, really."

Mickey's eyebrows furrowed a bit more before they shot up toward his hairline. He pointed an accusatory finger toward the Time Lord, taking a step toward him. "It's 'im. It's the thing, the alien."

"Oi, don't call 'im that," Rose stepped in.

"It's what he is, innit?" Mickey retorted.

"'S rude. And he's not a thing he's a person, same as you and me." Rose shot back.

"Don't be stupid," Jackie scoffed as she sat down in an empty chair. "Aliens don't just come down from space and venture 'bout the Estates."

"Quite right, Missus Tyler. Though, I will say that London draws more attention than most places. It just happened that Rose was who and what I needed when last we were here, and here is where she lives." The Doctor replied with a smile.

Rose watched as the Doctor's blunt honesty washed away any of Jackie's doubt, her eyes widening comically against the heavy application of mascara. They probably hadn't had that good a stretch since Rose told her she was dropping out of school to support Jimmy.

"Ha! See? Told ya, she ran off with an alien. Don't know what this government job rubbish is all about, but…"

_Knock, knock, knock._

The polite rap on the door had everyone turning to look at it, cutting Mickey off well before he would have had a chance to continue his tirade. Rose, noting her mother utterly frozen, and knowing Mickey wouldn't want to answer the door without one of them asking him too, stepped up to greet the unexpected guest.

"Hello," A blonde woman said once Rose opened the door. She seemed friendly enough even though she gave off an air of authority that would not be contested. Maybe it was the pant suit. Maybe it was the two soldiers at her back, even if they didn't have guns drawn. Either way, Rose straightened her spin and wished she had something on a bit smarter than a hoodie and jeans she'd run from a Dalek in. "This may sound like a very odd question, but would the Doctor be here?"

Rose had sensed him approaching before the blonde woman had even finished her sentence.

"I'm the Doctor," He greeted. "How can I help?"

"Doctor, I'm Kate Stewart, senior science officer of UNIT," She replied.

The Doctor cracked a grin, "I thought I recognized you, though I didn't realize you were following in your father's footsteps in your own way. Where is he, anyway?"

"Retired," Kate replied, her smile a bit more warm and genuine now. "He's away on vacation in Florida."

"Ah, I never thought I would see the day Alistair actually retired." The Doctor said wistfully.

"He never thought there'd be a day when you didn't wear something a bit … eccentric." Kate retorted, glancing over the Doctor's outfit. Rose shifted slightly, stepping in front of him just a bit in a manor she thought was a bit too possessive. If either the Doctor or Kate noticed, neither said anything. "I wish I could say I tracked you down specifically for a social visit, however, I'm going to need you and your companions to come to the tower." Kate glanced behind the Doctor. "Though I admit I didn't expect there to be quite so many, nor did I think they would all be so young."

Rose looked over her shoulder to see both Adam and Mickey had come to investigate. She craned her head around to see her mother was still stunned in her chair.

"Well that depends on what you define as young. Age wise, I suppose, yes, they are. But where wisdom is concerned, well …." He glanced over his shoulder at Mickey, gave a brief glance to Adam. "Maybe a couple of them still need to grow up."

"Yes, well, regardless, they may come with you or they may stay here."

"I'm not getting roped into this." Mickey said, hands in the air as he backed away from the door. "Nope, he's an alien, and I'm not getting tied up in alien things." He snatched a piece of paper off the coffee table and headed toward the door. "I'm heading to Geminus, get the testing done."

"Wait," Kate held out a hand, stopping Mickey from going further.

"What?" Mickey asked, frowning.

"You say you're going to Geminus?"

"Yeah, what of it?" Mickey asked, rolling his shoulders and appearing to prepare for a fight. Which was comical considering Kate looked very much like the kind of authority Mickey never messed around with.

Kate grinned wickedly. "I thought you didn't want to be tied up in 'alien things', as you called it?"

* * *

 

"'Kay, fill me in a bit, yeah?" Rose asked after she and the Doctor were safely in the backseat of an SUV heading to UNIT headquarters. Mickey and Adam were in the other car with Kate and a soldier, leaving he and his favorite companion with a second solider and brunette with glasses and an odd sense of fashion. Not to mention the inhaler that came out right around the time Rose mentioned wanting to toss her bag in the TARDIS first.

"Just want to set this in by the door," She'd said, pointing to the alley where the Old Girl was parked.

"Here," The Doctor had said, reaching into his pocket and giving Rose a key. "Hold on to it. If you're signing on this time, and I'm stuck with you, better have a way to get home, yes?" He'd smiled, and his hearts had fluttered as Rose beamed. Her fingers caressed his palm as she took the key, and a jolt of adrenaline and hormones surged through his system in a way that hadn't since prior to the Time War. And even then, it hadn't been like that, it hadn't made him feel nearly possessive.

Then the brunette made a choked sounding, breaking the moment before anything even infinitesimal in nature could transpire. The girl, with her glasses and her outfit that seemed disturbingly familiar in a way he couldn't quite place, fumbled in her brown, wool jacket and pulled out the inhaler. She seemed to need it every time she looked at him, or mention of him was made, or that of the TARDIS.

"I technically work for UNIT," The Doctor replied to Rose quietly, though not enough not to invoke the brunette's need for her inhaler. Rose frowned at the action, like she was trying to put together a puzzle, but quickly returned her attention back to him as he continued. "United Nations Intelligence Task Force."

"Then shouldn't it be UNITF?" Rose quipped, tongue resting in the corner of her mouth as she grinned.

He didn't know why, but he had the sudden need to drive it back into her mouth with his own. His attraction to her, something he barely wanted to admit to himself, seemed to be growing stronger as of late.

Shaking his head, he tapped her on the nose, earning a giggle from her. "Anyway, I used to work with them, back in the day, and still do. So when something alien happens, which does far more than your kind care to believe, they go out and investigate. And what's more, if I'm in the area, they call me. There was a time I was exiled to Earth, and I found a home among them. Namely with Kate's father, and a few of my other past companions."

"Exiled to Earth?" Rose gaped at him.

"Yes, back in my third body." He said absently.

The color draining from Rose's cheeks made him realize his slip up. "You're what?"

"I … it's complicated, but … well …" The sound of the inhaler in the front seat reminded him they weren't quite alone. "I will explain later, and only to you. Adam and Mickey don't need to hear about it, but you … if you're signing on, if you really want to do this, you should probably know what could happen while we're out there."

"Alright," Rose said absently, nodding in tiny motions and studying his face in a way that made him feel he was about to regenerate on the spot. There was a bit of fear in her eyes, too.

"I will say, now, though, so you don't have it on your mind. I don't invade or snatch or take over bodies."

"Right," Rose's relief was so palatable it was comical.

"You humans truly give aliens a bad rep, you know. We aren't body snatchers who prob."

"Well you certainly aren't." Rose retorted, a blush infusing her cheeks as she cleared her throat and looked away.

"Been known too, now and again." The Doctor replied without thinking it through. He wasn't sure _why_ he said it, just that he felt he _should_ say it. Rose's head whipped around to look at him, and he noticed the quick flick of her eyes to … southern parts of his anatomy that appreciated the attention a little. Thank Rassilon for his superior biology, for he was able to settle _that_ down before this strange flirtation got out of hand.

The brunette inhaled again.

"I'm terribly sorry, but I must ask, are you alright?" The Doctor leaned forward and stuck his head between the seats to ask.

She was instantly flustered, not quite smiling as panic seemed to war with a fanatic sort of joy. "Yes, I'm … I'm good. Osgood, actually. Not that you asked, of course, because you didn't. But that's who I am, Osgood. Petronella Osgood, which you can see why I would not go by my first name. I'm a big fan of yours, by the way, I have read all your files, including the information on the thing you haven't told her yet so I'll keep it to myself." She smiled awkwardly. "Spoiler alert, and all." She then took a deep, hearty drag off her inhaler.

The Soldier driving groaned.

The Doctor smiled. "I have a fan, well, that's new, I must say." He leaned back and looked at Rose. She smiled, amused by either him or Osgood, he wasn't sure. "I have a fan."

"I heard." She then leaned forward, resting an arm on Osgood's shoulder. "He's really not that fantastic."

"Hey now," He warned good naturedly.

Rose flashed him a wink. "Truth be told, he'd be dead because of me. First time I met him I saved his life."

"More like second time, thank you. And, need I remind you, I have save you more times than you saved … you know what, no, that would be a lie. You saved me," He confessed.

Rose frowned only briefly before turning back to Osgood.

"Truth is, got nothin' to be all flustered about. Might be alien, but he's just a bloke." Rose said with a shrug.

Osgood glanced at him. "He's a bit dashing in this … I've never seen him look … in his other bodies he wasn't quite…." She whispered, likely not realizing that it was still loud enough for him to hear.

"He's not hard to look at, that's for sure. Even when he's a bit Mister Darcy looking. Starting to miss that look, actually." Rose whispered back, and the Doctor tried very hard not to preen under her praise.

He briefly wondered what she would have thought of him back when he first regenerated into his current body. He was much younger looking then, his hair longer, less lines around his eyes and lips.

"But he's not someone you gotta get all flustered about. He wouldn't want that, anyway. You say you're a fan, but trust me, doesn't stick around anywhere long enough to be admired or anything. Not that I don't think he doesn't like being appreciated or anything, but he doesn't do it for the praise, he does it because 's what's right."

And wasn't that the truth.

Osgood glanced over at him before leaning a bit closer to Rose. "What's it like?" She asked softly. "Travelling on the TARDIS with him?"

Rose opened her mouth but was thrown back as the vehicle came to a stop, the gate to the Tower of London before them.

"'Nother time, Nell." Rose said warmly, and Osgood looked taken aback before settling in with a smile.

The SUV was passed through, and a couple moments later, they were parked next to the vehicle Kate, Mickey, and Adam were in.

"Nell?" The Doctor questioned when Osgood was out of the vehicle first.

Rose shrugged. "Knew a girl in school hated her name. Can't even remember what her first name really was anymore, just called her Leigh. Was part of some part of her whole name, just don't know what that was anymore. Thought I'd give Nell a shot."

The Doctor gave a hum of approval as a soldier arrived on both sides of the SUV to open their doors for them. He straightened out his leather jacket as he waited for Rose to return to his side. Once there, the pair of them joined the others at the door, and they entered together.

"Put your finger on the scanner, each of you. It's all part of the security clearance." Kate instructed as they came up to a strange looking archway. The Doctor, a bit weary, did as instructed. He was willing to trust UNIT, even though most if not all the familiar faces were gone.

"So when did Science head UNIT, which is essentially the Military?"

"Since I dragged them into adapting, kicking and screaming." Kate replied as the others passed through the scanners.

"Your father always did say that Science leads."

"And he helped see that into reality." Kate said as Mickey went through. "Follow me, please."

They were led to a conference room on the third floor, soldiers flanking them until they were through the doors. Inside the room was a basic long table, the end Kate drifting to having a small stack of papers and folders as well as a tablet. Behind her was a screen currently displaying the UNIT logo on a black background.

Once they were closed, Kate looked over the three non-UNIT employees in the room with a studious expression. "How well do you trust these three, Doctor? We have no record of any of them traveling with you before now."

"I trust Rose implicitly," he replied. "Adam, we've only just met a few hours ago. Mickey … well, Mickey has seen Autons up front and no one seems to be buying his story that his ex-girlfriend-"

"Didn't technically break-up." Mickey grumbled.

"-Ran off with an alien."

Kate narrowed her eyes at the two young men, then nodded once. "Right, I'm glad you came by when you did, Doctor, as we are having some … difficulties." She produced a flyer from a pile of papers on the table and handed it to him.

"Geminus Institute of Genetic Research is looking for volunteers. Participants must be available during the week, have few if any familial attachments, and free of criminal records." He frowned. "That alone sounds suspicious. Who would volunteer to participate in research that is specifically looking for people that nobody would miss and would go undetected?"

Mickey, the idiot, clearly, coughed and scratched at the back of his head, looking anywhere but at the other people in the room.

The Doctor rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"We have managed to send in an undercover agent, of sorts. Someone we knew would be able to handle themselves but wasn't officially tied to UNIT. We haven't heard from her since she entered the facility."

"So you need someone who can go in?" The Doctor asked, narrowing his eyes. "Which is why you would allow me to bring Rose, Adam, and Mickey when you lot haven't 'cleared' them yet."

Kate at least had the decency to look a bit guilty. "We know there's something going on here, and we suspect it's a bit other worldly. There have been a couple of people who went in, having had no real education to speak of, was no one of influence nor knew anyone with influence, and then suddenly they have high-paying government jobs."

"So Geminus, clearly, are likely making duplicates of people that someone in their headquarters can control." He frowned. "How do we know you're actually Kate?"

Kate smiled knowingly as she picked up the tablet. A couple swipes and taps later, and the screen behind her displayed a picture of everyone in the room. Each one was taken in the archway on their way to the conference room, beside it was a vascular scan, and beside that was the image of a DNA strand.

"We've started taking precautions." She explained. "Everyone who walks through the doors of UNIT has a scan done. We suspect that those that are entering the Geminus Institute don't come out perfectly human. And as you can see, our scanners do determine when someone is not." She said, indicating the blinking "WARNING" associated with the Doctor.

"Bit impressive if not a touch invasive." He admitted.

"Woulda been nice to know 's what was happening." Rose grumbled.

"Agreed. But, what's done is done. Now, you need one of them to go in, I suggest Adam."

"What?!" Three voices all replied in various degrees of surprise, shock, anger, and confusion.

"Well it's simple," The Doctor explained. "Adam is from the future, should anything happen, the time line won't be affected."

Kate took up her tablet as Adam shook his head. "I don't want to." He said. "Just a few hours ago I was running for my life from an alien that looked like a metal pepper pot, and now you want to throw me out there with another potentially dangerous alien?" He demanded.

"It wouldn't do anyway, Doctor." Kate said. "We believe they do reference checks, and it will likely come up that Adam James Mitchell is, in fact, in Oxford at this moment."

"Making him technically unavailable throughout the week." The Doctor groaned, running a hand through his hair and pulling a bit.

"I'll do it." Rose shrugged, and he whipped his head around to stare at her in disbelief. Her nonchalance about walking into a potentially dangerous situation was both alluring and terrifying. She was brave, his Rose, but he wondered if it was like the Dalek: her not thinking through the possible consequences.

"Absolutely not." Mickey said firmly, shaking his head.

"How ya gonna stop me, Mick?"

"Applying myself, wasn't I?" He retorted.

"Weren't going to get in, and we both know it. You got attachments. Your Dad's out there somewhere, so's your Mum, and you have a job. A real, proper job, and mates. Anyone on the estates knows where to find you on a match night."

"And what about you, huh? You've got mates, too."

"Mates I hadn't properly seen in an age. Working open to close nearly every night before Henricks went up, and then I left with the Doctor. Last month I've been jobless and no one's heard from me." She shrugged. "Probably be waved right through."

There was silence in the room before Kate said, "She has a point."

Osgood used her inhaler.

The Doctor turned to Rose, "Did I tell you, not two hours ago, that I was not letting you wander off again?"

"Not really wandering off, though, am I?" She countered.

"No, I suppose you aren't." The Doctor said, stepping toward her and lightly touching her cheek with his finger tips. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"'Bout as sure as I can be. You've given me enough experience aliens that I think I can manage."

"Excellent." Kate said, not distracting the Doctor from the girl in front of him in the least. "Let's get you prepped."


	11. The Geminus Invasion Pt 2

There was so much technology. Adam looked around at everything as they prepared Rose to go undercover to where ever, and do what they needed her to do, and actually wished that Van Statten hadn't found him first. There was a contact lense for Rose to wear that didn't alter a thing about her, but allowed everyone back at UNIT to see what she said. It connected wirelessly to a stud they replaced her hoop earrings with. The second stud allowed them to hear everything, and looking at her there was no way to tell she was essentially a spy.

There were also other gadgets that he wanted to explore further if he could. Something sonic, a lipstick or maybe a flashlight, he wasn't sure what it was supposed to be. There were weapons as well, though they didn't interest him nearly as much as the tech that read, altered, or wiped memories. Oh there could be so many things he could do with that.

But not now. No, he was starting to formulate a plan, one that would hopefully score him plenty of fortune when he decided, in a trip or two, that travel just wasn't for him.

And he'd convince Rose to come with him.

Because after seeing how she grew up, where she was from, it wouldn't take much to convince a girl like her to come be with him if he were rich enough that the loss of his job in the States would mean absolutely nothing. And really, would she want to stick around with an old, alien man when she could have a young human who could give her everything she'd ever want?

He watched them now through the corner of his eye. She claimed they were friends, but obviously the Doctor didn't think that. He kept touching her face, her shoulder, her arm. She kept putting her hand on top of it, smiling in a way that didn't reach her eyes, avoiding eye contact with him while getting all flustered. It was obvious she didn't like his attention. She was too nice to actually physically remove him, but Adam knew from his time in school that a woman putting her hand on the man's that's touching her meant to remove it. Avoidance of eye contact meant discomfort. He didn't want Rose to have to worry about that when she didn't have to.

"Alright," The Doctor said, turning to him. "Once Rose is changed, we're leaving the base so you two be ready."

Adam looked over at the big, bulky bloke that used to be Rose's boyfriend. He lingered a lot, stood a bit too close. There was something threatening about him, even when he acted like he was incredibly uncomfortable with everything going on around him. Obviously, running off with the Doctor was her way of escaping that idiot.

But she could run away from them both, and that crass, overbearing woman that she called a mother. Thank goodness there wasn't an immediate resemblance, or he may have had to rethink his plans.

Plans, yes, once they got out there, he would excuse himself for a bit, and put things in motion.

Smirking to himself, Adam couldn't help but feel a bit self assured in his plans. After all, it wouldn't change anything. Too much.

* * *

 

Rose straightened her skirt once more, even though she was sitting down in the back seat of another one of those SUVs on her way to the Geminus Institute. She looked nice enough: pencil skirt in black, blue blazer over a white blouse, shoes should run in without being trainers. But she felt very much not like herself. Dressing up for 1869 in a beautiful gown was one thing, putting on a suit and pretending she was someone with so much potential these people would snap her right up was another.

"You'll do fine," The Doctor said, taking her hand off the hem of her skirt and giving it a squeeze. It was both eerie and comforting that he just _knew_ she wasn't ready for this just yet.

"I feel like … I dunno. 'S not right, is it? I feel like maybe I'm 'bout to become a cautionary tale. Hansel and Gretal or Lil' Red Riding Hood or something."

"Well, you're certainly not Little Red Riding Hood. She goes in, naive, easily led astray."

"And that's not me?" Rose challenged.

"Oh no," The Doctor replied immediately. "If anything you're the Bad Wolf, appearing sweet and innocent but with teeth and claws, and a fierceness I haven't seen in a long time."

"So why do you look like you swallowed something off?" She asked after noticing how pale he went.

He looked torn as to whether or not he should say something. "It's just that … Bad Wolf. Those words have been everywhere, in many languages. People either saw them, or I read it somewhere. It's like an omen or a fortune, I just can't decide which one. And I just said the words myself."

"Not filling me with reassurance here, Doctor."

"I don't mean to send you in there with that sort of thinking." He said, giving her hand another squeeze. "Maybe it's nothing, just a strange coincidence. Probably nothing at all, really."

"Right," Rose said with a sharp nod, attempting to ignore how her heart rate was picking up as she looked out through the windshield and seeing the building up ahead. There was the zodiac symbol for the Gemini on each end of the simple lettering hanging above the multi glass door entry.

"Hey," The Doctor said softly, turning her head toward him. "You are going to be fantastic in there, do you hear me."

Rose nodded. "Yeah," She said, sucking in a fortifying breath. "Yeah, of course." The vehicle slowed to a stop, and Rose took another deep breath. "Here goes nothing." She said more to herself than to him.

"I will be in the building around the corner with Kate and Nell, as you call her."

"Mickey?"

"As far as I know, Mickey went back home, wanting to keep out of things for now." He smirked. "And Adam just went out exploring London as he didn't get to see it the first time he was in 2005."

Rose snorted at that. "Right. Well, didn't ask, but it's alright." Without thinking, she leaned in and kissed the Doctor on the cheek.

Neither moved as Rose hovered in his personal space, shocking herself into immobility. The Doctor didn't appear to be breathing at all as he turned and caught her eye. She didn't want to believe his eyes flickered to her lips, and she was sorely tempted to find out if his mouth was as cool as his skin.

"Right," She said softly. "Best get going then."

"Yes," The Doctor said in equally hushed tones. "Be safe."

"I will," She lied, knowing there was no way to know for sure if she would be. She knew he knew that, that it was all just words because of the short distance between them.

The SUV door opened, and Rose came back to reality enough to realize she'd reached back for the handle. She moved swiftly out of the car, heading for the building without looking back. The whole walk to the front doors, she straightened her skirt, fixed her hair, shifted her jacket.

"Well aren't you just a classy piece of shit." She heard an all too familiar voice call out from her right. She didn't know if she should run, if she should stay, if she should call the Doctor's name, damn the consequences of her undercover mission.

She turned toward him, seeing he had been somewhat dressed up himself, though his shirt was untucked and his tie was crooked and stained. His trousers were a different color than the blazer hanging over his arm.

"Thought they didn't want anyone with a criminal record, Jimmy?"

"Yeah, well, pretty sure they ain't gonna want some chit from the Estates either. And given you being gone for a month, ain't no one seen you around, makes me wonder what you've been up to."

"Traveling." She replied quickly.

"Right. And how far did you have to spread your legs to be able to do that?"

"Fuck you, Jimmy," She said, turning and heading to the building.

"Don't think you're somehow better than me, Rose." He called. "You ain't nothing, and you're not going to be something, so give it up."

She ignored him, which was easier to do than to ignore how his words hit home in a way she didn't want to admit to.

Her confidence shaken, she strode through the doors and across the lobby to join the queue. She stared down at her application, wondering if she'd have found herself here had she not gone off with the Doctor. There was a pretty impressive paycheck ahead of her, though she wondered if anyone who volunteered would ever see it.

She tried to distract herself by looking around the room, noting there were another couple of queues, that people were being turned away at the counter, that Mickey was waving to her slightly, that there were a couple sketchier people from the Estates.

Wait, Mickey?

She strained her neck in looking back at him with wide eyes. He waved again, pointed to the application in his hand, and gave her a thumbs up. She tried shaking her head, display as best she could what a stupid idea this was for him, but he didn't seem to get it.

Her queue was moving just a touch faster than the others, and soon she was ahead of him looking back over her shoulder as he acted like nothing was amiss. She wished beyond anything that there had been someway to talk _to_ the people at UNIT as they clearly did _not_ know that he would be foolish enough to do this. And if they did, why hadn't they told her it was going to take place.

"Next," She was called up and she did her best to smile at the woman behind the counter.

There was no small talk, no introductions. The woman simply took her application and read over it.

"No job for the last month?" She asked.

"No, last job got blown up." Rose replied.

"And you have been staying with your … parents? Boyfriend?"

Rose shook her head. "Estranged from my Mum, Dad died. Left my last boyfriend when I realized he was a useless idiot," She growled a bit. "Sorta been … going here and there since then. Never really staying in one place very long."

The woman behind the counter smiled in a way that had a shiver crawl up Rose's spine.

"Well, as it just so happens, we here at Geminus want to give a fresh start to people just like you."She stood, waving Rose around the desk. "If you would just follow me."

* * *

 

It was a bit too easy to sneak on to the campus, to get into his dorm, to write a little note in his planner. Invest in this company and that, space it out over a few months to ensure that it wasn't done all at once. After all, he didn't get money sent to him _that_ often. In and out, no more than ten minutes. No one noticed him, no one would miss him.

Adam Mitchell just ensured he would change his future for the better, and make it that much easier to get the girl.

* * *

 

"Well aren't you just a classy piece of shit," Were there first words the Doctor heard as he walked into the abandoned office where Kate, Osgood, and the other UNIT officers were stationed. He was a bit taken aback by the crassness of it, the heavy cockney accent, and waited to see what would happen.

"Thought they didn't want anyone with a criminal record, Jimmy?" He hear Rose retort with a quiver to her voice that was a bit more than just nerves for the task at hand.

"Yeah, well, pretty sure they ain't gonna want some chit from the Estates either." This Jimmy replied, and the Doctor stalked toward the computer banks as the idiot continued.

"Who is she talking to?" He asked, seeing the male specimen on the screen and finding himself unwilling to refer to him as a man.

"Not sure." Kate replied, but her heart rate spiked for a moment when he called her. Not in one those fluttering of the hearts sort of thing, either.

"Traveling," Rose responded to a question he didn't hear.

"Right, and how far did you have to spread your legs to be able to do that?" The male replied, and rage caused the Doctor to grip the back of Osgood's seat in a white knuckle grip. He felt the plastic crack beneath his touch, and watched the screen to ensure the thing didn't go near Rose.

"Fuck you, Jimmy." Rose retorted, and she turned away from him.

"Don't think you're somehow better than me, Rose…" He called after her, but Osgood drowned him out.

"His name is James Wesley Stone, aka Jimmy. He's got a record, of course. Blokes like him always do. Looks cowardly though, as it's all domestic violence related. Last charge was … oh."

"Oh? Oh what?" The Doctor asked.

Osgood nervously looked between him and the screen, and before she could close anything, he glimpsed the file she had open.

And there was Rose, his wonderful, beautiful Rose with a black eye and a bloodied lip. She didn't look beaten down or sad in the picture, merely angry. He read the report briefly, and caught on that this James had lied to the authorities and sweet talked his way out of the charges sticking.

_I should go out there, find that pathetic excuse of a living creature, and show him how he'd be treated on Gallifrey for such actions._

" _What_ is that _idiot_ doing?" Kate asked, and the Doctor turned to see Mickey the bloody _Idiot_ waving and gesturing to Rose.

"Wanted nothing to do with anything alien, _knows_ this is all alien in nature, and _still_ goes ahead." The Doctor sighed heavily. "We can't keep an eye on him through Rose."

"No, and we can't exactly go in there and drag him out without tipping our hand that we've already got someone going in there." Kate agreed.

They waited, watching Rose's interaction with the woman behind the counter. As was expected, she was led inside.

"Alright Rose," The woman said, and Rose had turned her head in order for them to get a good look at her, if you would just step over here, Sarah will get you hooked up to the machines that we use to read your … vitals."

The woman was fairly nondescript, someone that would simply be passed on the street. But the woman in a lab coat ….

"Sarah Jane Smith." The Doctor grumbled under his breath. "Let me guess, she's your undercover?"

"Yes, Kate said, trailing the word a bit as she narrowed her eyes at the scene. "But, we didn't send her in to participate like this. She was supposed to be like Rose, just a …."

Kate trailed off as technology far beyond anything found on Earth was attached to Rose's head, and her eyelids fluttered shut. And just before they had, the Doctor glimpsed a strange shift, and the pinking of the admission woman's skin.

"That's not right." The Doctor commented as some sort of gurgling sound came through the stud earring receptors. There was silence, and footsteps that sounded decidedly not like high heeled shoes.

More silence, then Sarah Jane's voiced asked, "What is it?"

"Another one, like the one you're impersonating, but it seems as though … oh no. Not _him._ "

The Doctor groaned as he recognized the pitch and lilt of voice.

"What is it?" Kate asked.

"Zygons. You have bloody Zygons in London and now they know I'm here." He sighed heavily, running a hand across his face. "I hope you have a small army at the ready, just in case." He said as he turned and headed toward the exit.

* * *

 

Adam, admittedly, was a bit lost. He wasn't entirely sure where he was going, only that he should be heading toward the wrong side of town where they had left the TARDIS. He got off at the proper stop, headed around the corner, but ended up stopping short when he wasn't sure he recognized anything.

Too many buildings looked right, but the alley he found himself just didn't … fit.

He wandered, looked over his shoulder, was just so very certain that he was just not where he was supposed to be, he turned the next corner.

And there it was.

The TARDIS.

He smiled to himself as he walked over to the doors, a slight strut to his step.

Adam knocked, proud of himself for the sneaky way he was going to help himself along.

When the doors opened, Adam was greeted by a smile from a man he did not recognize. It was manic, happy looking, had it not been for the steel in the dark brown eyes.

"Adam. Mitchell." The man said, straightening his brown tie. "Been waiting a long time for this moment."

Before Adam could ask who this man was or what he meant, he was being pulled inside the TARDIS.

* * *

 

The Doctor was storming across the lobby of Gemineus, personifying the name the Daleks had given him during the war. People stepped out of his way, and Mickey the bloody idiot clearly decided that the Doctor would not be best impressed with his attempts at helping.

He moved right up to the desk, directly to the woman who had escorted his Rose behind the scenes to be duplicated, and smiled.

"I'm the Doctor, and no, I don't have an appointment. However, you will find all your researchers more than willing to clear their schedules to see me. Immediately."

The woman's eyes widened, and she got immediately to her feet. "Follow me." She said simply.

He did so, checking over his shoulder to see if anyone else was about to follow them. When it was clear no one, not even the other receptionists, were paying attention, he palmed his screwdriver. Flicking through the settings he timed his press of a button for when they passed a fire alarm, and set it off. The woman stopped, turned, and glared at him. "I wouldn't want anyone to be here if things go bad. I know how you Zygons are."

She merely lifted an eyebrow before turning and continuing her lead.

There were a few people passing them as they went deeper, confused by the direction they were heading and likely not anyone he would have wanted to stop.

When they reached what was clearly their destination, the Doctor was momentarily taken aback to see Rose talking to Sarah Jane as if they were old friends.

"What that's discomforting." He announced, pulling the attention of all the women in the room. He frowned. "Interesting choice. I didn't think you lot really cared much one way or another which form you chose. However, you seem to have a preference."

"It seemed the female form was the most likely to succeed in our enterprise." The one that looked like Sarah Jane said. "And what do you, Doctor, think you can do to stop us from taking over this planet?"

"Why do you need to?" He countered.

"Ours was burned in the first few days of the time war. Very few of us survived. We were lucky as it was to have escaped. But we are only a couple dozen. We have yet to even reproduce our numbers."

"So you decided to, what, exactly? Duplicate whomever you could? The unattached, as it was noted. How does that help you? Rose, as much as I adore her, as much as I believe she can do or be anything, is too common at this point to be of any benefit to you in this decade. Maybe, if she had chosen to stay here instead of coming with me, she would have done great things. However, as it stands she's …."

"The perfect candidate to working close to the leaders of this world. To be molded and shaped into a future later these weak minded humans will want to accept. She's pretty, and the humans like pretty."

"Yes, but what of Sarah Jane? Yes she's pretty, but you must have noticed that she is a bit past the point in which she is … moldable."

"She is influence. A journalist, we learned."

"And you will, of course, influence the humans using the media. Sway them in the direction you want them to go? It's a lovely plan, truly. Well thought out, well, compared to most that invade earth, anyway. However, there is … an issue. You said you were, what? A couple dozen? And you have yet to reproduce? Now, I know how often you lot do reproduce, and it's not as often as you like. Hence, why you have always been so few in numbers. So yes, you go one, you clone yourselves from the living, breathing, 'moldable' humans, or those unattached with influence, and you get into exactly the areas and places you want. Except … humans, wonderful that they are, are fickle. So you can tell them what they want to hear to vote one of you into power, to make things the way they need to be for Zygons to flourish. You can get the media to twist this, and spin that, but at the end of the day the decision goes out to the people. And as I said, funny thing, people. They could live their lives doing the same thing everyday until the day they die, or they could one day decide to run away with a mad man in a blue box. They can all be the same, and yet, so fundamentally different from one another. What you sell to one group, convince it's the best, another will find fault. And you, well, as we said, you don't reproduce fast enough to gain the numbers needed to secure your places."

"We could merely wipe them out." One said.

"You could try, but you would fail. Either you manage to destroy the humans and yourselves with them, or you manage to single yourselves out and get yourselves imprisoned or worse."

The Zygons all looked to one another, a gleam in their eyes betraying they knew he was right. The Doctor waited until the gleam darkened into despair before he cleared his throat.

"I may be able to offer a different solution."

* * *

 

"You had no right, Doctor, none." Kate lectured him as the UNIT team was brought in to take the Zygons into private custody.

"I had to do something, Kate. They are refugees of war." He countered, attempting to plead with her.

"You didn't have to make them an offer to stay here on Earth!" She snapped back.

"What happened to 'science leads'?" He asked with a smirk, knowing by the color of her cheeks that he had hit exactly where he wanted to. "After all, the Zygons are used to far superior technology, and are more than happy to help advance the human race, as well detect those that do no belong on Earth. Add in the fact that 'under cover' will take on a whole new meaning."

The Doctor watched the Zygon pods holding their duplicates were slowly opened and their inhabitant released.

Kate remained silent for a long moment, then sighed. "This body has a way with words."

"I do tend to talk myself out of more situations this go around. It doesn't hurt that the face is … charming, to most."

"I'll say." She murmured, and the Doctor glanced at her with a chuckle before his eyes fell back on the pods. Sarah Jane was opened, and while there was an ache for him to go up to her, say hello, he knew it was best that he didn't. Old wounds, and all. Instead, he stepped away from Kate, thankful she was distracted for a moment in order for him to slip past her notice.

He moved to the last pod, a hunch saying it was likely Rose, and waited until Kate noticed Sarah Jane and smiled. He stepped in the shadows behind the pod, and peered around in time to glimpse Kate looking around in confusion, Sarah Jane in a hopeful manner. Kate managed to catch his eye, and frowned. He shook his head, and she frowned deeper. Then, as if she was a type of telepath herself, she turned sharply back to Sarah Jane, took her arm gently, and guided her out of the room. His old companion, still lovely as she had been all those centuries ago, looked around one last, disheartened time, before turning her attention completely to Kate as they left the room.

He stepped out from behind the pod, opening it in place of the UNIT agent who still had a few more to go.

He studied Rose a moment, reaching up and caressing her cheek before gently detaching the connections to her head.

Her eyes fluttered open, and she raised a hand to her head as she blinked and looked around.

"Blimey. Head's pounding now. What do you suppose was …?"

It was impulsive, but he'd been impulsive with this body from the beginning. Oh, of course he eased it a bit here and there, though the gaps in his memory could prove that maybe that wasn't really the case at all. But regardless, this pink cheeked and yellowed haired girl had a hold on him that hadn't taken in too long, that he wasn't sure would be happen again.

So as she came to, as her eyes began to light with joy at his being the first face she saw, he kissed her.

Quick, a bit longer than he had kissed Grace all those decades ago, and with much more emotion, but a kiss nonetheless.

And she responded. Even if it didn't last long enough for more than her to brush her lips along his, the Doctor knew without a doubt that there was something there, and Rose hadn't minded in the least that he ….

"At least there wasn't any surprises." She blushed as he pulled away. "No second tongue or prickly skin on your lips or something."

The Doctor laughed. "There wasn't even a first tongue."

"You telling me there _is_ a second tongue?" She teased as her own caught between her teeth as she grinned.

"Think talking may be a bit difficult if there were." He grinned as he took a step back and helped her out of the pod. "Come on," he said as he reached up and removed her studs, breaking the connection Kate would have.

"Wait," Rose said, ducking her head as she used on hand to hold open her eye and the other to gently remove the contact.

The Doctor groaned, "I forgot about that." He admitted. "When Kate reviews …."

"Think Nell's going to have a bigger fit than Kate." Rose ginned again as she handed him the contact.

"Quite." He said, turning and heading toward a nearby table to set down the gadgets. "Well, before we get dragged into anything, we should go. I'm not one for clean up."

"What about Adam?" Rose asked as the Doctor returned to her side and slipped a hand into hers.

"I'm sure he'll meet us back at the TARDIS later." The Doctor assured.

* * *

 

Adam had found himself on his mother's couch when he came too. His head swam, and he wasn't sure, but he thought he remembered going into the TARDIS and finding … what? Rose, he remembered. But not Rose. Rose but different. Not older, but … aged. No, that wasn't right. Not aged but older. Yes, that was it. She still looked the same but her eyes were nearing ancient. And the Doctor … was it the Doctor? The bloke he remembered was taller, somehow, and skinnier. Brown eyes instead of blue. No, couldn't have been the Doctor. And yet ….

"So I suppose it wasn't your fault the bunker or where ever you were working at with that Van Statten man was destroyed, either?" His mother's lecturing tone reprimanded him from the entry way. He heard the door close, and her keys hit the table before her footsteps traveled down the hall.

"What?" He asked, confused.

She rounded the corner, hands on her hips, and glared.

"Don't play stupid with me, Adam James Mitchell. Your former co-worker, Doctor something or other, called me at work to let me know you were back home and likely wouldn't be feeling quite yourself for a few days. Said the bunker was destroyed and you had no where else to go but back here. With your mother. Honestly, it's the dormitory all over again. You swore you didn't start that fire, and while it was ruled electrical, you're too smart for it all to have been an accident."

She continued to ramble, but he tuned her out, suddenly remembering that there _was_ an electrical fire in his dorm that had destroyed everything, including his laptop, books, the planner in which he ….

No. No, no, no, no, no! He never had the chance to buy any stock! He didn't have a chance to enact any of his plans before it burned. How did he _know?_

And then he remembered someone. A boyfriend of his dorm mate. Jake, John, something with a J. A bit older. He made him uncomfortable with how much he seemed to watch him. He thought, though he couldn't be sure, that he'd also seen him in the TARDIS with the older Rose, but that couldn't be it ….

There was nothing to be done for it. Adam knew in that moment, as his mother lectured now about money, that the Doctor had left him behind for good, in his proper time line, and wouldn't be coming back for him.

* * *

 

"Dear me, don't worry about Adam, he's been returned here he belongs." The Doctor read the note that was stuck to his TARDIS door. It had been written in Gallifreyan, making it impossible for Rose to read. But since she was the one concerned with where he wandered off to, it was best she knew why they wouldn't be sticking around.

"You came from the future for him?"

"Apparently." He replied with a frown. He shrugged, crumpled the paper and stuffed it in his jacket pocket. "I believe a change of clothes is in order, and then chips. Perhaps from somewhere exotic. Like Magrathea."

"Seriously?" Rose gapped at him as he opened the TARDIS doors.

"Oh yes," He replied honestly. "A great tourist destination, Magrathea, at least until they sought answers they didn't know the questions to. Shall we?"

Rose smiled. "It's a Date." She replied, re-grasping his and allowing him to pull her into the TARDIS.

* * *

 **A/N:** I didn't mean for it to be a month. Oops. Thank you to the reviewers, favoriters, followers, etc. for giving this story love.  
 **Quatermass, Darlok, doritotasticwizard, Dreamcatcher56, QueenTatooine, Hell's Wolfy, Anne-Marie Helstone, Guest(s), greeneyesCutie, Sommerlee, ladytigerlili24, THANK YOU** for leaving words.

And also not for harassing me for an update. Honestly, much as I love the concept, this story is quite like pulling teeth for me. I WILL see it through to the end, because I will not leave it abandoned, but that's one of the reasons it's taking long between updates. I also have my eyes on earning a small job that will bring in a bit of income now that my lil boy is older and more independent.

Again, thank you for your patience, and I WILL finish the story. Just bare with me, please. :)


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